NCTimes.com Blogs

Bortezomib, a drug used to treat multiple myeloma, is effecting in treating transplant rejections, according to University of Cincinnati researchers. Their paper on the discovery was published in the Dec. 27 issue of the journal Transplantation.

Researchers found the drug effective in treating rejections caused by antibodies that target transplanted kidneys, as well as reversing rejection episodes that did not respond to standard therapies.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells, found in the bone marrow. The researchers said plasma cells, which are in a category of white blood cells called B-cells, play a large role in rejection, something originally thought to be mostly under control of other white blood cells called T-cells.

“It has become clear that plasma cells and the antibodies they produce play a bigger role in rejection than previously thought, and the development of therapies targeting these cells has lagged,” said Steve Woodle, lead author of the study and chief of transplant surgery at the universary, in a press release. “We realized that current therapies don’t target the plasma cells which may produce the antibody, in general.”

This article of mine will appear in Thursday’s paper , but you can read it here today. The Voice of San Diego wrote on this issue Tuesday, so a tip of the hat to them:

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The New York Times preens itself as one of America’s most accurate and trusted sources of information. Yet the news organization keeps getting basic facts wrong. Here’s an article on the housing meltdown that describes “short sales” as when “homeowners sold to avoid a foreclosure”.

Nope, short sales are when homes sell for less than the mortgage balance. Short sales don’t have to involve a threatened foreclosure at all, although in practice many do. A well-off person who wants to quickly unload a property could sell it short and just pay the difference to the lender. More commonly, the seller is financially distressed and can’t make the payments. But lender approval is typically needed for a short sale — a fact the article doesn’t explain — so a short sale is not an automatic get-out-of-foreclosure card.

In short, the NYT reporter’s muddled description will only confuse readers who don’t already know better.

Another NYT writer, Gretchen Morgenson, became infamous as a symbol of the Grey Lady’s cluelessness about real estate. The late Tanta of the respected real estate blog Calculated Risk dedicated a whole category to correcting her errors.

But none of the editors at the Times appears to have listened. While the Grey Lady’s errors keep on coming, the editors are probably still patting themselves on the back for their great journalism and wondering why they’re not more respected.

—- Bradley J. Fikes

Today Qualcomm announced a pact with Beijing Tianyu Communications Equipment Co. LTD allowing Tianyu to make wireless modems using Qualcomm’s CDMA2000 technology and the rival WCDMA technology, in part developed with Qualcomm technology.

The agreement appears to represent significant progress for Qualcomm in cracking the contentious Chinese market. China has tried to develop its own wireless technology that would not involve paying Qualcomm royalties. A press release from Qualcomm said royalties payable by Tianyu are “at Qualcomm’s standard worldwide rates”.

Watching the market reaction Tuesday should be interesting — is it a one-off event, or does it represent significant progress for Qualcomm in reaching the Chinese market?