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| Pfizer enters takeover discussions with AstraZeneca: WSJ Thursday, May 01, 2014 08:40 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca Plc have resumed talks about a trans-Atlantic merger of the two drug giants after Pfizer sweetened the terms of an earlier takeover offer for its British rival, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The renewed discussions suggest that the two sides might be getting closer to striking a friendly deal, but there is no guarantee the talks will go anywhere, the Journal said, adding that the terms of the informal offer from Pfizer couldn't be learned. Citing people with knowledge of the matter, the Bloomberg report said a new bid may value AstraZeneca at more than 50 pounds ($84.47) per share and could come as early as next week. Full Story | Top |
| Phoenix veterans hospital chief put on leave, care delay probed Thursday, May 01, 2014 07:54 PM PDT By David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) - The top official at a Phoenix veterans hospital was placed on indefinite leave on Thursday while regulators probe whistleblowers' claims that delayed care may have led to the deaths of as many as 40 veterans, the head of U.S. veterans affairs said. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki said in a statement that Director Sharon Helman was put on administrative leave "until further notice" pending a "thorough" review by the agency's inspector general's office. Also put on leave were associate director Lance Robinson and a third individual whose name and position were not disclosed, the Department of Veterans Affairs said. "These allegations, if true, are absolutely unacceptable and if the inspector general's investigation substantiates these claims, swift and appropriate action will be taken." Helman and Robinson could not be reached for comment. Full Story | Top |
| Vertex says cystic fibrosis drugs shown to boost lung function Thursday, May 01, 2014 05:51 PM PDT Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc on Thursday said a combination of its cystic fibrosis drug Kalydeco and an experimental compound was shown to improve lung function in a mid-stage trial, sending its shares up nearly 8 percent. The study found that treatment with Kalydeco and the experimental drug VX-661 for 28 days resulted in a 4.6 percentage point improvement in mean lung function for patients with two specific genetic mutations. If eventually approved by regulators, VX-661 would be the second drug from Vertex that works by treating the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis, a rare genetic disease that impairs the lungs and digestive system. Full Story | Top |
| California senate advances bill to curb antibiotics in farm animals Thursday, May 01, 2014 04:54 PM PDT By Laila Kearney SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The California State Senate advanced a bill on Thursday to restrict the use of antibiotics in farm animals for growth enhancement by requiring that the drugs be sold by prescription for medical reasons only, officials said. The first-in-the-nation legislation would codify into law voluntary U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines, issued late last year, aimed at stemming a surge in resistance to certain antibiotics in humans, according to state Senator Jerry Hill, the bill's author. "The more antibiotics are used, the more resistance will develop," Hill, a Democrat, said in a statement. "This is an emergent public health issue." Antibiotic resistance, which can cause humans to lose the ability to fight infections, is thought to be caused partly by the prevalence of the drugs in animal products. Full Story | Top |
| Toronto Mayor Ford takes leave to deal with alcohol problem Thursday, May 01, 2014 03:08 PM PDT  By Allison Martell and Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford flew to the United States in a private plane on Thursday, a TV network said, a day after he said he would take a leave of absence from his job and his re-election campaign to seek treatment for an alcohol problem. Global News reported that it had confirmed Chicago as Ford's destination but did not cite any sources. Ford's decision to take a leave of absence followed months of denials that he has a substance abuse problem and nearly a year after media reports surfaced that he appeared in a video smoking crack cocaine. His departure followed a Globe and Mail report on Wednesday that it had seen a video shot last week that showed Ford using what appeared to be drugs. Full Story | Top |
| Oklahoma prison report says collapsed vein behind botched execution Thursday, May 01, 2014 02:56 PM PDT  By Heide Brandes OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - The botched Oklahoma execution of Clayton Lockett was largely due to a collapsed vein during the lethal injection, and the needle was inserted in the groin area instead of the arm after prison officials used a stun gun to restrain him, a prisons report said on Thursday. Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton said in the report the state's execution protocols needed to be revised and called for an indefinite stay of executions until the new procedures are in place and staff trained. Ahead of the Tuesday execution, Lockett, a convicted murderer, had refused to be restrained, the report said, and after being given a warning "an electronic shock device was administered," causing an injury to his arm. Lockett, 38, died of an apparent heart attack minutes after the lethal injection protocol failed. Full Story | Top |
| Air transport not always faster in heart attack cases Thursday, May 01, 2014 02:25 PM PDT By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Switching from helicopter to ground transport between two Texas hospitals cut the time heart attack patients had to wait to have their arteries unblocked by more than half an hour, according to a new study. "What we showed in our study was by tweaking our system, in this case by changing our mode of transportation from air to ground, we actually took median treatment time from about 121 minutes beforehand to 90 minutes afterward," Dr. Timothy Mixon told Reuters Health in a phone call. He and coauthor Dr. Luis Colato wrote the paper that was published in the Journal of Emergency Medicine. The change to ground transport resulted in more than 90 percent of patients being treated within national guideline time of less than 120 minutes, the authors say, versus less than half getting treatment within that two-hour window before. Full Story | Top |
| TSX ekes out gain as Manulife, Catamaran climb Thursday, May 01, 2014 01:54 PM PDT  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index edged higher on Thursday as gains in Manulife Financial Corp and Catamaran Corp helped offset a decline in shares of Bombardier Inc after those companies reported results. Goldcorp Inc , one of the world's biggest gold miners, also unveiled a quarterly statement which showed a decline in profit. The Toronto stock market's benchmark index climbed to its highest level in nearly six years earlier in the session. On Wednesday, investors cheered upbeat commentary on the U.S. economy by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. says Obamacare enrollment points to stable costs Thursday, May 01, 2014 01:48 PM PDT  By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Thursday predicted stable health insurance costs for consumers who have purchased Obamacare plans, defying critics who warn that President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law will lead to skyrocketing premiums. Just over 8 million Americans signed up for private coverage in state and federal insurance marketplaces during the law's first enrollment period through April 19, according to a new administration report released on Thursday. Outside the marketplaces, the report said, an additional 5 million people bought plans that comply with Obamacare's consumer protection and benefit standards. Full Story | Top |
| Geomagnetic storms may influence risk of stroke Thursday, May 01, 2014 01:24 PM PDT By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More strokes happen when geomagnetic storms are afoot, according to a new review of stroke literature - although it's not clear what protective measures anyone could take, researchers said. Geomagnetic storms happen when the Earth's magnetic field is disturbed by solar winds or coronal mass ejections, which throw out powerful magnetic fields from the sun. Among more than 11,000 people who had a stroke, the event was almost 20 percent more likely to happen on days with geomagnetic storms, researchers in New Zealand found. "The results were a big surprise to us," said lead author Dr. Valery L. Feigin of the National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences at the School of Rehabilitation and Occupation Studies at Auckland University of Technology. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. city health officials want tighter restrictions on e-cigarettes Thursday, May 01, 2014 12:54 PM PDT  By Bill Trott WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of urban health officials on Thursday urged the Food and Drug Administration to go beyond the regulations it proposed last week for e-cigarettes and treat them like regular cigarettes. In an open letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) noted that the FDA has nothing in its proposed regulations that would govern the advertising of e-cigarettes, which it said often targets the youth market. The FDA did propose banning sales of e-cigarettes to those under the age of 18. The e-cigarette industry, estimated at $2 billion and growing, did not object loudly to last week's proposed FDA rules, which many health officials found too loose. Full Story | Top |
| Magma rising in Washington state's Mount St. Helens volcano : USGS Thursday, May 01, 2014 12:45 PM PDT  By Eric M. Johnson SEATTLE (Reuters) - Magma levels are slowly rebuilding inside Mount St. Helens, a volcano in Washington state that erupted in 1980 and killed 57 people, although there was no sign of an impending eruption, U.S. scientists said. "The magma reservoir beneath Mount St. Helens has been slowly re-pressurizing since 2008," the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement on Wednesday. "It is likely that re-pressurization is caused by (the) arrival of a small amount of additional magma 4 to 8 km (2.5 to 5 miles) beneath the surface." The USGS said this is to be expected with an active volcano and does not indicate "the volcano is likely to erupt anytime soon." The USGS, and the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at University of Washington, closely monitor ground deformation and seismicity at the volcano. Full Story | Top |
| Saudi Arabia finds 26 more cases of MERS, Egypt reports first sufferer Thursday, May 01, 2014 11:55 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia said on Thursday the total number of cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), an often deadly new disease, had nearly doubled in the kingdom in April with 26 more infections reported on Tuesday and Wednesday. The first case of the disease in Egypt was also reported on Thursday, in a 27-year-old man who lives in Saudi Arabia but returned ill to Egypt last week after having been in contact with an uncle in the kingdom who died of MERS. International concern about the disease is acute because Saudi Arabia is expected to receive large numbers of foreign pilgrims during the fasting month of Ramadan in July, followed by millions more for Islam's annual haj pilgrimage in October. Although the WHO has said the disease, from the same family as the SARS virus, is difficult to pass between humans, most of the cases reported in Saudi Arabia so far appear to have been transmitted between people rather than from animals. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. expects stable Obamacare health plan premiums in all states Thursday, May 01, 2014 11:50 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Thursday said it expects premiums for private Obamacare health plans to remain stable in all 50 U.S. states, based on the make-up of underlying risk pools. (Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
| U.S. says 13 million enrolled in private/public health plans Thursday, May 01, 2014 11:42 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 13 million people signed up for public and private health coverage during Obamacare's open enrollment period, including late sign-ups for private insurance through April 19, the U.S. administration said on Thursday. The total includes 8 million people who selected private plans through state and federal insurance marketplaces and another 4.8 million who enrolled in the Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program, two government programs that serve lower income Americans. (Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Sandra Maler) Full Story | Top |
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