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| Americans get extra week to sign up for Obamacare as website improves Friday, Nov 22, 2013 11:34 AM PST  Americans hoping to sign up for health insurance under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law will have an additional eight days to do so for coverage to begin January 1, 2014, officials said on Friday. Officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said they had no plans to extend the ultimate deadline of March 31, 2014, the date when people without insurance must enroll in a plan or face a tax penalty. That decision reflects, in part, optimism that the website will continue to improve: the site will soon be able to handle 50,000 simultaneous users, said Jeffrey Zients, the Obama administration's HealthCare.gov adviser, and 800,000 people per day, largely because of the more than 300 software and other fixes that technology teams have made to the site over the last seven weeks. Full Story | Top |
| Mass. crime lab chemist sentenced to 3-5 years for tampering Friday, Nov 22, 2013 11:32 AM PST By Daniel Lovering BOSTON (Reuters) - A former Massachusetts crime lab chemist was sentenced to three to five years in prison on Friday after pleading guilty to tampering with evidence and other charges in a case that shook the foundations of the state's criminal justice system. Annie Dookhan, 35, agreed to plead guilty during a hearing at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston, just weeks after her attorney sought leniency and Judge Carol Ball ruled that her sentence would not exceed three to five years. Dookhan's mishandling of evidence at the now-closed Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Boston, where she worked from 2002 to 2011, may have tainted cases involving as many as 40,000 people, investigators have said. On Friday, the chief counsel of the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services, Anthony Benedetti, said Dookhan's sentencing was not the end of the drug lab story. Full Story | Top |
| Virginia state Senator Deeds: 'Some wounds won't heal' Friday, Nov 22, 2013 11:09 AM PST  By Gary Robertson RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - A prominent Virginia state politician who was stabbed in what police describe as an attempted murder by his son thanked supporters after his release from a hospital on Friday, but said some wounds would never heal. "I am alive so must live," state Senator Creigh Deeds wrote on his official Twitter page, three days after he was critically wounded and his son died of a self-inflicted gunshot. Your prayers and your friendship are important to me." Deeds, a Democrat who ran for governor in 2009, was attacked on Tuesday at his home in western Virginia. He was taken by helicopter to University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville in critical condition with stab wounds to his head and upper body. Full Story | Top |
| Two children dead after car crashes into Minnesota pond Friday, Nov 22, 2013 11:08 AM PST Three children were in critical condition on Friday a day after the car they were riding in slid into a near-freezing pond in suburban Minneapolis in a crash that has left two of their siblings dead, authorities and the family's attorney said. The mother and stepmother of the children was at the wheel with only a learner's permit, which requires a licensed driver to be in the car with her, the Minnesota State Patrol said. The car veered off a rain-slicked highway ramp on Thursday and plunged into a retention pond in St. Louis Park. The five children were trapped inside the vehicle as it sank into water up to 9 feet deep and remained there for up to 45 minutes, police said. Full Story | Top |
| Chew more, eat less? It could work, study suggests Friday, Nov 22, 2013 10:52 AM PST By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who increased the number of times they chewed their food before swallowing ate less over the course of a meal, in a new study. Prospective study participants were asked to consume five portions of Totino's pizza rolls and count the number of times they chewed each roll. Sixteen were a normal weight, 16 were overweight and 15 were obese. Full Story | Top |
| More walking tied to lower stroke risk among men Friday, Nov 22, 2013 10:49 AM PST  By C. E. Huggins NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older men who spend several hours walking each day are less likely to have a stroke than their peers who rarely walk, a new study suggests. "Stroke is a major cause of death and disability and it is important to find ways to prevent it, especially in older people who are at high stroke risk," Barbara J. Jefferis told Reuters Health in an email. "Our study suggests that maintaining an active lifestyle, specifically by spending more time on all forms of walking, could be an important part of stroke prevention strategies in older people," Jefferis said. The new analysis includes 2,995 men who had not had a stroke or heart disease at the time of that survey. Full Story | Top |
| EU regulator likely to fine J&J, Novartis next month: sources Friday, Nov 22, 2013 10:41 AM PST By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators are set to fine Johnson & Johnson and Novartis next month as part of a crackdown against deals delaying the sale of cheaper generic medicines, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The sanction, the second against so-called pay-for-delay deals after fines against Lundbeck and eight others in June, underlines the European Commission's determination to challenge a practice common in the pharmaceutical industry. Antitrust regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have in recent years criticized the practice for inflating consumers' bills and pushing up public healthcare costs. "The European Commission is likely to issue a decision next month," one of the people said. Full Story | Top |
| Son of California man held in North Korea says has not heard from father Friday, Nov 22, 2013 10:08 AM PST  By Dana Feldman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The son of a California retiree and Korean War veteran who was detained by North Korean authorities last month during a trip to the reclusive Asian nation said on Friday he has had no communication with his father since then. Jeff Newman also told Reuters in an interview that his family remained concerned about the health of his 85-year-old father, Merrill Newman, and does not know whether heart medication sent to North Korea on his behalf had reached him. The son, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, told CNN on Wednesday that the elder Newman had been on an airplane on the last day of his trip waiting to take off when North Korean authorities boarded the aircraft and took him away. The father's detention came a day after he and his tour guide had been interviewed by North Korean authorities at a meeting in which Merrill Newman's military service during the Korean War was discussed, the son told CNN. Full Story | Top |
| White House says 2015 enrollment for Obamacare pushed back one month Friday, Nov 22, 2013 09:45 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration will push back the open enrollment season for Obamacare health insurance in 2015 by a month to give insurance companies more time to determine their rates, the White House said on Friday. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Jeff Mason, Steve Holland; Editing by Doina Chiacu) Full Story | Top |
| Insight: Old assumptions questioned in Arafat's mysterious death Friday, Nov 22, 2013 09:35 AM PST  By Crispian Balmer RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - President Yasser Arafat's spartan bedroom remains largely as he left it in 2004, when he flew off to France for treatment for a mystery illness only to return home two weeks later in a coffin. Arafat's body, wrapped in a Palestinian flag, was buried nine years ago, but conspiracy theories he was poisoned were never laid to rest, with accusations flying on all sides. Should evidence emerge that Israel killed the Palestinian leader, a legacy of rancor could wreck the chances of peace for years to come. Like many Palestinians, Imad Abu Zaki, one of Arafat's closest bodyguards, has no doubt who did it. Full Story | Top |
| Toronto's scandal-hit mayor still has 42 percent approval Friday, Nov 22, 2013 09:24 AM PST  By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - More than 40 percent of Toronto voters still approve of the job Mayor Rob Ford has done, even after he admitted smoking crack cocaine and city council stripped him of much of his authority. Indeed, support for Ford, who has seen much of his authority stripped by city council over the past week, is still comfortably in the 37-49 percent range that he has polled in over the past two years, Forum said. "What we can see from this is that, to his core supporters... who comprise about one third of the voters in Toronto, Rob Ford is a viable candidate for mayor," Forum President Lorne Bozinoff said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Gilead and GSK drugs for HCV and HIV win EU green light Friday, Nov 22, 2013 09:13 AM PST  European regulators have recommended approval of a new drug from Gilead Sciences to treat hepatitis C and an HIV medicine from GlaxoSmithKline, both of which are expected to be major sellers. The European Medicine Agency (EMA) said on Friday its committee of experts also gave the green light to a tuberculosis drug from Japan's Otsuka, following a review of an earlier rejection. Recommendations for marketing approval by the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) are normally endorsed by the European Commission within a couple of months. Analysts expect U.S.-based Gilead's sales to surge higher next year on the back of its treatment known as Sovaldi, or sofosbuvir, for people infected with the liver-destroying hepatitis C virus (HCV). Full Story | Top |
| British police arrest former Co-op Bank chairman in drugs probe Friday, Nov 22, 2013 09:10 AM PST  By William James and Matt Scuffham LONDON (Reuters) - British police have arrested the former chairman of the Co-operative Bank as part of an investigation into the supply of illegal drugs, ratcheting up pressure on the 141-year-old bank as investors mull plugging a $2.4 billion capital shortfall. Prime Minister David Cameron has questioned why Paul Flowers, a one-time local Labour politician and Methodist preacher with no banking qualifications, was judged suitable for the chairmanship during a period when the bank nearly collapsed. The publication of a video by the Mail on Sunday which the newspaper said showed Flowers arranging to buy crack cocaine and crystal meth propelled the Co-op into a political storm over the executive's links to leaders of the opposition Labour party. Flowers has not yet directly addressed the allegations of drug use, but after the video appeared he released a statement through the Methodist Church saying he had a difficult year. Full Story | Top |
| South Africa's Ascendis makes bourse debut after raising $44 mln for M&A Friday, Nov 22, 2013 08:01 AM PST South African drugmaker Ascendis Health Ltd debuted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Friday, after raising more than 450 million rand in a share sale to fund acquisitions. The bulk of the funds will be used for acquisitions, Chief Executive Officer Karsten Wellner said. "We're aiming to be the second-largest player in the pharmaceutical market on the JSE." Wellner also said Ascendis was considering raising between 600 and 700 million rand in the bond market next year to fund acquisitions. Full Story | Top |
| Canada's top court upholds Ontario ban on private-label drugs Friday, Nov 22, 2013 07:54 AM PST  By Randall Palmer OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Supreme Court of Canada dealt a blow to pharmacy chains on Friday when it upheld the province of Ontario's ban on drugstores' sales of their own private-label generic prescription drugs. Pharmacy companies saw the private-label drugs as a way to reduce the impact of Ontario regulations designed to lower the cost of generic drugs. The Ontario rules have weighed on the earnings of the drugstore chains, including Shoppers Drug Mart Corp, a principal appellant in this case. In the 7-0 decision, Justice Rosalie Abella noted that Canada spends more on prescription drugs per capita than almost any other industrialized country and she highlighted "Ontario's totemic struggle to control generic drug prices." She pointed out the proportion of government health care expenses that went for drugs had risen to 15.9 percent in 2010 from 9.5 percent in 1985. Full Story | Top |
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