WASHINGTON -- In dual victories for the Obama administration, a federal appeals court ruled the National Institutes of Health can continue to fund embryonic stem cell research, and the Supreme Court rejected a request to expedite one of the lawsuits filed against the healthcare reform law.
And in a potential victory for hepatitis C patients, an FDA panel unanimously endorsed two new hepatitis C drugs, and people are already calling the new options "game changing" even before the FDA approves them.
Court Rules on Embryonic Stem Cells
A federal appeals court on Friday sided with the Obama administration and
overturned a judge's ruling that NIH funding of embryonic stem cell research violates a law against destroying human embryos.
A panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit -- who were all appointed by Republican presidents -- ruled 2-1 on Friday to strike down the
injunction issued by federal judge Royce Lamberth that barred the NIH from paying for research on embryonic stem cells (ESC).
Lamberth had ruled that ESC research violates a federal law known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment that bars use of government money to destroy human embryos.
After the prospect of losing funding put the ESC research community into a panic, the same court that issued Friday's ruling ordered that the NIH could continue to fund ESC research until a formal decision was made on Lamberth's injunction.
The Obama administration argued that millions of dollars' worth of research would be put in peril if the injunction was allowed.
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