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| Music device doesn't drop diabetics' blood pressure Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 12:27 PM PDT By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A device that plays a melody in an attempt to slow people's breathing didn't lower the blood pressure of people with diabetes, according to a new study. "Given the results and the studies available, you can conclude that there is not enough evidence to use this device," said Dr. Gijs Landman, the study's lead author from the Isala Clinics in The Netherlands. ... Full Story | Top |
| Irish PM says received letters in blood over planned abortion law Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 10:39 AM PDT  By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's prime minister said he had been sent letters written in blood and been branded a murderer by opponents of his government's plans to allow limited access to abortion, an issue that has polarized the country for decades. Enda Kenny's government agreed draft legislation in April to allow for limited access to abortion where a woman's life is in danger, including the threat of suicide, following months of protests from both sides of the debate. ... Full Story | Top |
| AIDS drugs halve HIV risk for intravenous drug users in study Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 10:27 AM PDT  By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - A daily dose of powerful anti-HIV medicine helped cut the risk of infection with the AIDS virus by 49 percent in intravenous drug users in a Bangkok study that showed for the first time such a preventive step can work in this high-risk population. "This is a significant step forward for HIV prevention," said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which helped conduct the clinical trial along with the Thailand Ministry of Health. ... Full Story | Top |
| Australian woman attempts record swim from Cuba to U.S. Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 10:18 AM PDT  By Jeff Franks HAVANA (Reuters) - Under a bright, tropical sun, Australian Chloe McCardel jumped into a calm, crystal-clear sea on Wednesday and began her quest to become the first person to make the 103 mile swim from Cuba to the United States without a shark cage. If all goes well, she hopes to swim through the Straits of Florida in about 60 hours and reach Key West on Friday night. McCardel will use a team of scientists in the United States to help guide her through the Gulf Stream, the powerful and unpredictable current that has stymied many previous attempts. ... Full Story | Top |
| Girl who needed judge's order to be on transplant list to get new lung Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 09:30 AM PDT (Reuters) - A lung donor has been found for a 10-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis who only became eligible for an adult organ transplant because of a judge's order, her mother said on Wednesday. Sarah Murnaghan, who had been kept off an adult organ transplant list due to an age restriction prior to the judge's ruling, was being prepped for surgery in an operating room at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, her mother, Janet Murnaghan, wrote on Facebook. "Sarah got THE CALL," she wrote. "Please pray for Sarah's donor, her HERO, who has given her the gift of life. ... Full Story | Top |
| Amgen says drug slowed ovarian cancer in trial Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 09:26 AM PDT (Reuters) - Amgen Inc's trebananib drug for ovarian cancer extended the length of time that patients lived without the disease getting worse by about two months, meeting the main goal of a late-stage clinical trial, the company said on Wednesday. The trial is the first of three pivotal-stage studies of the experimental drug, and analysts said U.S. regulators will likely need to see evidence that trebananib extends overall patient survival before considering the drug for marketing approval. Amgen said median progression free survival (PFS) in the trial was 7. ... Full Story | Top |
| Soda ban would target heavy youth, not poor: study Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 09:06 AM PDT By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A cap on soda size - such as the one New York City regulators are trying to pass - would have the biggest impact on overweight kids and young adults, a new study suggests. When limited to drinks sold in restaurants and event spaces, researchers found the policy is not likely to disproportionately affect poorer patrons, which has been an argument against the measure. "We want to target the right people, and want it so it's not unfairly targeted at, for example, resource-poor communities," said Dr. Y. Claire Wang, who worked on the study. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cleveland man pleads not guilty to murder, serial rape Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 08:59 AM PDT  By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A former Cleveland school bus driver accused of holding three young women captive for a decade and subjecting them to torture, such as chaining them to a pole, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to more than 300 criminal charges including rape, kidnapping and murder. Ariel Castro, 52, was indicted last week on 329 charges for the abduction and confinement of the women, who were freed from his house on May 6 along with a 6-year-old girl, which DNA evidence later confirmed was fathered by Castro. ... Full Story | Top |
| Teva, Sun Pharma to pay $2.15 billion to settle Pfizer patent suit Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 08:43 AM PDT  By Pallavi Ail (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc said Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd would pay $2.15 billion to settle a patent suit related to its acid-reflux drug. This is the first instance of generic drugmakers paying damages for marketing a copy of an existing drug for which patents have yet to expire - known as an 'at-risk' launch. The Pfizer drug, Protonix, recorded peak annual revenue of almost $2 billion in 2007, before sales plunged following the launch of generic versions by Teva in 2007 and Sun Pharma in 2008. ... Full Story | Top |
| Mandela responding better to treatment: South Africa's Zuma Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 08:28 AM PDT  By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela was responding better to treatment in hospital on Wednesday morning after a "difficult last few days", South Africa's President Jacob Zuma said. Mandela, South Africa's first black president, was rushed to a Pretoria hospital on Saturday in a "serious but stable" condition suffering from a recurring lung infection. He was spending a fifth day under the care of its doctors. "We are very happy with the progress that he is now making," Zuma said in a speech to parliament. ... Full Story | Top |
| Economic, social pressures behind Kuwait crackdown on foreign workers Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 07:15 AM PDT  By Sylvia Westall and Ahmed Hagagy KUWAIT (Reuters) - The narrow, cracked streets of the district of Jleeb al-Shuyoukh, down the road from Kuwait's main airport, would normally be bustling with Indian and Bangladeshi workers by late morning, just before the summer sun becomes unbearable. But since Kuwaiti police launched a series of raids about two months ago, saying they were tracking down illegal laborers, the streets are almost empty and many small businesses have closed their doors, residents say. ... Full Story | Top |
| Britain to regulate e-cigarettes as medicine from 2016 Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013 07:08 AM PDT By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to regulate electronic cigarettes as non-prescription medicines from 2016 in an attempt to improve quality, though the country's drugs watchdog said they would still be sold in convenience stores. Healthcare authorities around the world are grappling with how to deal with the battery-driven devices, which allow users to inhale nicotine-laced vapour and are increasingly popular as an apparently less harmful alternative to smoking. ... Full Story | Top |
| British healthcare body recommends Thrombogenics drug Tuesday, Jun 11, 2013 10:19 PM PDT BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian biotech group Thrombogenics said on Wednesday that it received a positive initial recommendation from British healthcare body NICE that its eye drug Jetrea qualify for reimbursement to patients. The company said a final decision is expected in the third quarter of this year. (Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) Full Story | Top |
| Restrictive drug laws censor science, researchers say Tuesday, Jun 11, 2013 09:18 PM PDT  By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - The outlawing of drugs such as cannabis, magic mushrooms and other psychoactive substances amounts to scientific censorship and is hampering research into potentially important medicinal uses, leading scientists argued on Wednesday. Laws and international conventions dating back to the 1960s have set back research in key areas such as consciousness by decades, they argued in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience. ... Full Story | Top |
| GSK offers discount to win UK green light for platelet drug Tuesday, Jun 11, 2013 05:06 PM PDT  LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline has finally won a green light from Britain's healthcare cost agency NICE for its platelet-boosting drug Revolade, after offering a price discount to the country's state-run healthcare service. Revolade, also known as eltrombopag, was originally rejected in 2010 by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as not cost-effective. Draft guidance published on Wednesday now recommends it for certain patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura, a bleeding disorder, following the discount offer from GSK. ... Full Story | Top |
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