Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics Division today announces the global launch of its VLP™ FOOT Variable-angle Locked Plating system. The portfolio of innovative screws and low-profile plates expands for Smith & Nephew surgeon customers the variety of patients who can return to an active lifestyle after orthopaedic foot surgery.

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., a multinational manufacturer and distributor of life science research and clinical diagnostics products, announced today that it has completed the purchase of certain diagnostics businesses of Biotest AG, including its diagnostics products in the areas of blood transfusion testing, transplantation, and infectious diseases for 45 million euros.

Researchers participating in the Multidimensional Intervention for Early Osteoarthritis of the Knee (Knee Study) determined that physically inactive, middle-aged people with symptomatic osteoarthritis benefitted equally from strength training regimens, self-management programs, or a combination of the two. Details of this study are available in the January 2010 issue of Arthritis Care & Research, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology.

Researchers from the American Headache Society's Women's Issues Section Research Consortium found that incidence of childhood maltreatment, especially emotional abuse and neglect, are prevalent in migraine patients.

VBL Therapeutics today announced the initiation of a Phase 2 efficacy and safety study evaluating lead compound VB-201 for the treatment of patients with psoriasis. VB-201 is poised to be a first-in-class, orally-administered immune response modifier expected to reduce inflammation in a broad range of conditions such as psoriasis.

The expanded recall of TYLENOL Arthritis pain reliever is fresh evidence of the need for Congress and the FDA to regulate wood pallets used to transport food and pharmaceuticals in the United States because of the dangers they pose to human health.

Clarian Cardiovascular has established the Midwest’s only Transradial Center of Excellence in an effort to offer patients a catheterization procedure that significantly reduces recovery time and improves patient outcomes – transradial cardiac catheterization.

Reportlinker Adds The Market for Wellness Programs and Their Impact on Pharmaceutical, Diagnostic and Device Product Markets

GE Global Research, the technology development arm for the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced that scientists in their Biosciences Lab have been awarded a second round of funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to continue research that could reduce the cost and time of sequencing of an entire human genome to less than $1,000, in under a day.