Hospira received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), recommending European Commission approval of Inflectra (infliximab) for rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and plaque psoriasis.

Inflectra (infliximab) is a biosimilar medicine to the reference medicinal product, Remicade (infliximab), and is the first monoclonal antibody therapy to reach a positive opinion following review via the EMA biosimilars regulatory pathway. A biosimilar developed in-line with EU requirements can be considered a therapeutic alternative to an existing biologic, with comparable quality, efficacy and safety to the reference product.[1] 

New geologic evidence that casts doubt on one of the conventional explanations for how Antarctica's ice sheet began forming, says a team of researchers writing in Geology.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), an ocean current flowing clockwise around the entire continent, insulates Antarctica from warmer ocean water to the north, helping maintain the ice sheet.

For several decades, scientists have surmised that the onset of a complete ACC played a critical role in the initial glaciation of the continent about 34 million years ago.

Geophysicists conducting an analysis of earthquakes in the area around the Salton Sea Geothermal Field in southern California found a strong correlation between seismic activity and operations for production of geothermal power, which involve pumping water into and out of an underground reservoir. 

Using the same kind of mathematical formulas used to draw political redistricting maps, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have developed a model that would allow for the more equitable allocation of livers from deceased donors for transplantation.

They claim that where you live dictates the availability of a liver transplant - geography can mean the difference between a 10 percent chance of dying while on the waiting list for a donor liver, and a 90 percent chance.

Their new model ignores the longstanding relationships among medical centers used to create the current unbalanced system and makes the distribution of organs as equitable as possible, they say.

A survey found that new moms in Canada are weaning their infants early instead of feeding them just breast milk for the first six months of life. 
That falls below recommendations made by the World Health Organization and endorsed in 2004 by Health Canada and the Canadian Paediatric Society. 

The authors surveyed 402 pregnant women at three months postpartum and 300 of them again at the six-month mark, and found that though almost 99 percent of the women started out breastfeeding their babies, only 54 percent were still exclusively breastfeeding three months after giving birth. That number dropped again to 15 per cent by six months, in line with the national average, which is also low for breastfeeding.

Arctic summers could be ice-free as early as 2030, said Dr. Mark C. Serreze, director of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC - part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences based at the University of Colorado in Boulder) in the briefing for a seminar to be held on Tuesday, July 16th, at 10 a.m. EDT. 

In the session "Environmental Impacts of the Arctic's Shrinking Sea-Ice Cover" he will examine the social and economic effects of the retreat of the Arctic Ice Cap and the opening of the Arctic Ocean.  Registration is open to everyone free of charge.