Today's Reuters Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
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FDA approves Vivus weight-loss pill Qsymia
Tue,17 Jul 2012 06:52 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. drug regulators approved Vivus Inc's obesity drug late on Tuesday, the second new diet pill approved in the last month, as health advocates push for new solutions to combat obesity. Approval for the pill, to be sold under the brand name Qsymia, follows last month's go-ahead for Arena Pharmaceuticals' Belviq, but the approvals come after a 13-year dry spell for long-term weight loss drugs due to safety problems with past medicines. Vivus was set to head a pack of three companies vying to get new drugs approved, but the U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
South Carolina mother leaves hospital after flesh-eating disease
Tue,17 Jul 2012 05:24 PM PDT
Reuters - CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - A South Carolina mother who contracted a flesh-eating bacterial infection soon after giving birth to twins in May was released from a hospital on Tuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said. Lana Kuykendall, 36, a former paramedic, spoke publicly on Monday for the first time since she was hospitalized in Greenville, South Carolina, with necrotizing fasciitis, a rare and serious infection of the skin and soft tissues. "I'm just very grateful to be alive," the Greenville News quoted Kuykendall as saying of her two-month recovery. ... Full Story | Top |
Nebraska judge dismisses states' suit over contraception mandate
Tue,17 Jul 2012 05:14 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - A Nebraska federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit brought by seven states against the Obama administration's new healthcare policy that requires employers to provide birth-control coverage to employees. U.S. District Judge Warren Urbom concluded that the plaintiffs did not face immediate harm and therefore could not sue to block the part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 that requires employers to include free birth control in their healthcare programs. ... Full Story | Top |
Somaxon keeps insomnia drug exclusivity till 2020
Tue,17 Jul 2012 03:29 PM PDT
Reuters - (Reuters) - Somaxon Pharmaceuticals Inc protected the market exclusivity for its insomnia treatment till 2020 by settling separate patent lawsuits with Mylan Pharmaceuticals and Par Pharmaceutical Cos Inc. Somaxon shares jumped 146 percent on the news in extended trading. They closed at 26 cents on Tuesday on the Nasdaq. The settlement gives Mylan the right to sell a generic version of Silenor -- an insomnia treatment -- from January 1, 2020 or earlier under certain circumstances for a period of 180 days. ... Full Story | Top |
Massachusetts targets killer mosquitoes with aerial spraying
Tue,17 Jul 2012 03:17 PM PDT
Reuters - BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts will launch an urgent campaign of aerial spraying after numerous mosquito samples collected in the southeast of the state tested positive for the killer Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus, health officials said on Tuesday. A bite from an infected mosquito can transmit the EEE virus, triggering a potentially deadly inflammation of the brain that can also leave survivors with significant brain damage. ... Full Story | Top |
Correlation between housing crisis, child abuse: study
Tue,17 Jul 2012 01:58 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - U.S. hospital admissions for child abuse have risen in the past decade, and the increase may be related to the housing crisis of recent years, a study suggests. Researchers found that between 2000 and 2009, admissions for physical abuse at U.S. pediatric hospitals peaked in 2008 - right about the time housing foreclosures were taking off in many parts of the country. In general, as a local area's rate of delinquent mortgages and housing foreclosures rose, so did its rate of child abuse admissions, according to the findings reported in the journal Pediatrics. ... Full Story | Top |
Retinal detachment risk from cataract surgery falls
Tue,17 Jul 2012 01:50 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The risk of a person's retina detaching after having a cataract removed is dropping, says a new study. Australian researchers found that the number of people who needed their retina reattached after their cataract was removed fell from about one in 100 between 1989 and 1993 to one in 400 between 1999 and 2001. "It makes great sense to me," said Dr. Jack Cioffi, chair of Columbia University Medical Center's department of ophthalmology in New York. ... Full Story | Top |
J&J hit by strong dollar, CEO eyes pruning units
Tue,17 Jul 2012 01:44 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson reported lower-than-expected quarterly sales and cut its full-year 2012 profit forecast due to the stronger dollar as its new chief executive vowed to be disciplined in paring slow-growing businesses. The diversified healthcare company in April had raised its full-year 2012 profit forecast by about 2 cents per share in the face of a weakening dollar, which raises the value of sales in overseas markets. A stronger dollar is especially punishing to companies like J&J that derive most sales outside the United States. ...
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Rise in child abuse tied to housing crisis
Tue,17 Jul 2012 01:37 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hospital admissions for child abuse have risen in the past decade, and the increase might be related to the housing crisis of the late-2000s, a new study suggests. Researchers found that between 2000 and 2009, admissions for physical abuse at pediatric hospitals hit a peak in 2008 - right about the time housing foreclosures were taking off in many parts of the country. And in general, as a local area's rate of delinquent mortgages and housing foreclosures rose, so did its rate of child abuse admissions. That doesn't prove the housing crisis is to blame. ... Full Story | Top |
Forest Labs profit falls; Icahn renews his attack
Tue,17 Jul 2012 01:06 PM PDT
Reuters -  (Reuters) - Forest Laboratories Inc, which is bracing for a proxy fight with activist investor Carl Icahn, said on Tuesday quarterly earnings tumbled 79 percent as generic competition ate into sales of its antidepressant Lexapro. But the company also said efforts to diversify its product portfolio were paying off, with its three newest drugs selling well. New drug sales as well as signs that two new products could be approved by year-end pushed the company's shares up 1.7 percent on Tuesday, an analyst said. ...
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Milk thistle extract doesn't ease liver infection
Tue,17 Jul 2012 01:05 PM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A popular but unproven alternative therapy for liver disease may not offer any relief for those with chronic hepatitis C infection, a new study suggests. Extract from milk thistle known as silymarin is sold over-the-counter as supplements, and research has suggested as many as one-third of people with hepatitis C, a virus that causes liver swelling, have tried it. But in the new study, the extract was no better than a drug-free placebo at easing signs of the disease among people who hadn't responded to traditional remedies, such as peginterferon and ribavirin. ... Full Story | Top |
U.S. busts $108 million black market in Medicaid drugs
Tue,17 Jul 2012 12:57 PM PDT
Reuters -  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Operators of a nationwide black market have illegally sold more than $100 million of expensive HIV medications and other drugs obtained from patients on the government-run Medicaid health insurance plan, U.S. authorities said on Tuesday. Four dozen people were charged in documents unsealed in Manhattan federal court with running a scheme to repackage and sell medication bought on the street from recipients of Medicaid, the medical insurance program for the poor and disabled. ...
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UNESCO awards Equatorial Guinea prize despite outcry
Tue,17 Jul 2012 12:36 PM PDT
Reuters -  PARIS (Reuters) - The United Nations' cultural and science body UNESCO handed out a prize sponsored by the president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, defying campaigners' calls not to do so because of corruption allegations against Teodoro Obiang. France and other European countries boycotted a ceremony in Paris to award the prize, unimpressed by a decision to change its name to remove any reference to the president himself. ...
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Leaky bladder affects young women too
Tue,17 Jul 2012 10:45 AM PDT
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Bladder control problems may be seen as a problem of older people, but a good percentage of college-age women have symptoms too, a study published Monday suggests. In a survey of 1,000 young Australian women, researchers found that 13 percent said they'd had urinary incontinence in the past month. That meant problems like leaking urine when they exercised, or often having to rush to the bathroom to avert an accident. "The traditional belief has been that incontinence really occurs as a consequence of pregnancy and aging," senior researcher Susan R. ... Full Story | Top |
U.N. expert says U.S. executions, due Wednesday, unconstitutional
Tue,17 Jul 2012 09:53 AM PDT
Reuters - GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights investigator called on the U.S. states of Georgia and Texas to halt the execution of two men, scheduled for Wednesday, saying that the prisoners were mentally disabled and killing them would breach the U.S. constitution. Christof Heyns, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said that it was a "violation of death penalty safeguards" to execute someone suffering from "psychosocial disabilities" and said their death sentences should be commuted. "It is also contrary to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Atkins v. ... Full Story | Top |
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