News Archive

New York, NY (May 22, 2008)
NBA COACH MAURICE CHEEKS TEAMS UP WITH THE GOUT & URIC ACID EDUCATION SOCIETY (GUAES) TO CALL A "TIME OUT FOR GOUT"

Coach Cheeks partners with rheumatology experts on Gout Awareness Day to share his story and correct misperceptions about a serious condition

Summary: Philadelphia 76ers head coach and four-time NBA All-Star Maurice Cheeks is partnering with the Gout & Uric Acid Education Society (GUAES) to spread the word about gout — a common and intensely painful form of arthritis that affects approximately three to five million Americans. The 76ers outperformed expectations by reaching the NBA playoffs, but as his team was making its run, Coach Cheeks was experiencing a personal struggle with gout. In February, the gout symptoms affecting the joints in his big toe were so severe that he had to coach several games wearing only one shoe. NBA Coach Maurice Cheeks teams up with the Gout & Uric Acid Education Society (GUAES)

PR Newswire (May 22, 2007)
Survey Reveals Lack of Knowledge about Gout – a Common Form of Painful Arthritis

Summary: Even though more than two million Americans suffer from it, 40 percent of the nation’s population does not realize gout is one of the most painful forms of arthritis, according to a recent survey sponsored by the Gout & Uric Acid Education Society. Dr. Lawrence Edwards, chairman of the Gout & Uric Acid Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to gout education, said the Society will join with the Arthritis Foundation to promote better understanding of the disease by launching the first annual National Gout Awareness Day on May 22, 2007. Survey Reveals Lack of Knowledge

New York Times (March 12, 2007)
“Tsai-Fan Yu, 95, Physician, Dies; Helped Alleviate Gout”

Summary: Dr. Tsai-Fan Yu, a physician and researcher at Mount Sinai Medical Center who helped explain a primary cause of gout and who evaluated early drugs to treat the disease that are still in use, died on March 2 in Manhattan. She was 95. The cause was respiratory complications following a stroke.

In the 1950s, Dr. Yu helped to found a groundbreaking clinic at Mount Sinai to treat gout. Working with Dr. Alexander B. Gutman, who was a chairman of the department of medicine there, Dr. Yu helped establish a connection between elevated levels of uric acid and the pain experienced by patients with gout.

Dr. Yu, Dr. Gutman and others tested a drug, probenecid, which was shown to remove excess uric acid by causing it to be excreted in urine. Probenecid proved to be a success and remains in use today as a treatment for gout.

Dr. Yu and Dr. Gutman later conducted a five-year study of an anti-inflammatory drug, colchicine, and its effects on 208 patients, evaluating its usefulness in preventing recurring attacks of acute gout. Colchicine was also a success and remains in use.

In the 1960s, Dr. Yu, with Dr. Gutman and others, continued her pioneering studies of gout's mechanisms and evaluated allopurinol, a drug that helps interrupt the formation of uric acid and still is used in treating gout and kidney stones.

Tsai-Fan Yu was born in Shanghai. She received her medical degree from Peking Union Medical College in 1936. Dr. Yu arrived in the United States in 1947 and taught at Columbia before moving to Mount Sinai as an associate professor of internal medicine in 1957. In 1973, she became the first woman to be appointed a full professor at Mount Sinai, a position she held until retiring in 1992.

Datamonitor News and Comment (March 7, 2007)
“Savient reaches recruitment target in gout study”

Summary: Savient Pharamceuticals announced it has reached its enrollment target of 200 patients in two, phase III trials assessing the safety and efficacy of Puricase in patients with treatment-failure gout. The goal of the study is to show normalization of uric acid during the third and sixth months of the six-month trial. The study will also look for the reduction in the burden of gout tophi, fewer number of gout flares, and the reduction in the number of tender and swollen joints during the six-month time period.

“Up to this point, the tolerability of intravenous dosing has been good, with a low rate of infusion reactions across all placebo and Puricase infusions. Even more importantly, physicians appear to be highly successful in treating through infusion reactions when they do occur, just as in clinical practice with other infused biologicals,” stated Zeb Horowitz, senior vice president of Savient.

Results from the phase III trials are expected to be released by the end of the year. Savient anticipates a biologics license application filing in early 2008.

Savient Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing and marketing pharmaceutical products that target unmet medical needs in both niche and broader markets.

Reuters News (October 12, 2006)
"More than 20 percent of U.S. adults have arthritis-CDC"

Summary: More than 20 percent of U.S. adults have arthritis and more than a third of them have limited activity because of it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC looked at information in an annual survey of 30,000 people for its report, published in the agency's weekly summary of disease and death. The survey covered various forms of arthritis including rheumatoid arthritis, gout, lupus and fibromyalgia.

Fresno Bee (October 8, 2006)
"About gout; 'Disease of kings' actually affects people of all ranks"

Summary: Imagine stubbing your big toe against an iron bedpost or sticking it into a hornet's nest. That kind of intense pain may make you grind your teeth, but it's nothing compared to a gout attack. No monarch, let alone a peasant or commoner, should have to endure such agony. Yet, for centuries, gout was called the "disease of kings," and rulers such as Henry VIII, Charles V and George IV suffered attacks that often left them with feet propped up in misery. Modern-day gout sufferers can identify with the vexation depicted in illustrations from that bygone era.

AFX International News (October 2, 2006)
"Ipsen application to market anti-gout treatment wins EU validation"

Summary: French pharmaceuticals group Ipsen said the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has validated its application to market febuxostat in the EU for the management of symptomatic hyperuricaemia, or raised uric acid in the blood. The validation signifies that the EMEA can now begin a review of Ipsen's Marketing Authorization Application (MAA).

News Index

Reuters Health E-Line (September 26, 2006)
"Alcohol may trigger gout attacks"

Summary: Drinking alcohol, even a small amount, may trigger recurrent painful bouts of gout, a study shows. The gout-triggering effect of alcohol "occurs within a short period of time, perhaps less than 24 hours," study investigator Yuqing Zhang from Boston University told Reuters Health. "Thus, subjects with established gout should avoid drinking alcohol."

NewsRx.com (September 24, 2006)
"Drug Safety; Diuretics may not increase gout risk"

Summary: According to recent research published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, "It is taken for granted that diuretics may induce gout, but there is a general lack of evidence on this topic." H.J. Janssens and colleagues at University Medical Center of Nijmegen aimed "to determine the incidence of gout in patients who use diuretics, taking into account concurrent hypertension and cardiovascular diseases."

Cooking Light (March 2006)
"Gout: A Royal Pain"

Summary: A diet too rich in meat and poor in low-fat dairy and vegetables may lead to join pain.

Good Housekeeping (March 2006)
"I don't remember stubbing my toe"

Summary: Donna (not her real name) had no idea why her big toe was so sore. When it became red and swollen, she hobbled off to her internist.

PRWeb (March 4, 2006)
"Cheney Suffers Complications From Gout Medication"

Summary: In January, Vice President Dick Cheney was rushed to the hospital, suffering shortness of breath, a result of fluid retention in his lungs. The fluid in his lungs was caused by anti-inflammatory prescription that Cheney was taking for gout.