First trial against Merck’s Vioxx starts in Texas
|
|
A lawsuit against Merck & Co.‘s Vioxx goes to trial in a Texas state court on Monday in the first of thousands of cases claiming the pharmaceutical giant hid the risks of a popular painkiller.
The case in Angleton, near Houston, pits the family of deceased Texan Robert Ernst against the big drugmaker, which pulled Vioxx off the market in September after studies showed prolonged use could increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
The lawsuit could help determine the direction litigation will take in the other state courts in New Jersey, California and Texas, and in the U.S. federal court in New Orleans, a legal expert said.
Migrating geese could carry bird flu out of Asia
|
|
The spread of avian flu virus among migrating geese and other birds at a wildlife refuge in China means the birds could carry the devastating virus out of Asia, scientists reported on Wednesday.
This makes avian flu even more of a global threat than it already is, the scientists said in reports published jointly by the journals Science and Nature. Health officials fear avian influenza could cause a pandemic of human disease.
Bird flu crisis needs more money, quick response-UN
|
|
Global health experts unveiled a plan on Wednesday for Asia to avert a pandemic of avian flu and raised to a quarter of a billion dollars the funding needed to fight the virus for the next two years.
A meeting of potential donor countries would be held by December to raise $150 million to protect humans from the disease, on top of the $100 million for animal care sought earlier by the three UN health agencies meeting in Malaysia.
US says Cyprus ties could suffer over GMO plan
|
|
A plan by Cyprus to put genetically modified food on separate supermarket shelves angered the United States on Wednesday, as Washington warned the move could harm bilateral ties.
The U.S. had sent a letter to the Cypriot parliament warning that the move by the European Union country would stigmatise biotech goods and could contravene Cyprus’ obligations as a World Trade Organisation member, deputies said.
Under EU legislation, each state is free to display biotech food as it wishes.
BioSante says hot flash gel study is positive
|
|
Drug maker BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc. on Wednesday said its experimental drug relieved hot flashes better than a placebo, and that it will soon file with U.S. regulators for approval.
Shares rose about 6 percent on the American Stock Exchange in opening trade.
Among 484 patients followed for 12 weeks on three doses of the investigational compound, patients experienced a drop in the frequency and severity of hot flashes by week 5, and as early as week 4 with higher doses.
War, prostitution fuel AIDS epidemic in Ivory Coast
|
|
“Love me”, says the slogan above a red heart emblazoned on Kati Soro’s T-shirt, “with a condom”.
A foot soldier in a second battle raging alongside Ivory Coast’s civil war, she is on the front line fighting AIDS.
Soro, 20, became a member of her local AIDS awareness association in the northern town of Ferkessedougou last year, “because the problem is getting worse”.
Yes, quitting before surgery is a good idea
|
|
Contrary to previous paradoxical findings, quitting smoking in the weeks before chest surgery does not increase the likelihood of suffering complications, according to a new report.
An earlier study found that postoperative lung complications were more common among patients who quit smoking within 4 weeks before surgery. In fact, “recommendations have been made that surgery should be delayed for 8 weeks after smoking cessation,” according to the article in the medical journal Chest.
Drug curbs BP boost from cocaine, methamphetamine
|
|
A calcium channel blocker, isradipine, reduces the dangerous rise in blood pressure (BP) caused by taking cocaine or methamphetamine, according to researchers.
“Both cocaine and methamphetamine have powerful effects on blood pressure that are associated with strokes and heart failure,” Dr. Bankole A. Johnson, of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, told Reuters Health.
“Importantly,” he added, isradipine reduces these effects, “thereby lowering the risk of heart failure and stroke in cocaine or methamphetamine addicts.”
House panel bill to crack down on steroids
|
|
Legislation to combat illegal use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports leagues won the approval on Wednesday of a U.S. congressional committee.
On a 38-2 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee approved the measure, which would create minimum standards for drug testing and provide for a lifetime suspension for a third offense.
Vietnam bird flu toll rises to 39
|
|
A 73-year-old Vietnamese has died from bird flu, taking the country’s toll to 39, 19 of them since the virus returned in December, state-run media reported on Thursday.
The Hanoi resident, one of four people infected by the H5N1 virus being treated in hospital, died on Tuesday after being admitted on June 23, the Lao Dong newspaper quoted hospital officials as saying.
It gave no further details of the patient, and doctors at the hospital could not be reached immediately for comment.
Australia’s “Dr. Death” had acceptable record
|
|
An Indian-born surgeon, dubbed “Dr. Death” in Australia after being linked to the deaths of 87 patients, had an acceptable medical record but still contributed to eight deaths, a review of the doctor’s patients said.
Jayant Patel, who was banned from surgery in two U.S. states, left Australia in March after he was linked to the 87 deaths at Bundaberg Hospital in Queensland state in 2003-04, when he was head of surgery at the hospital.
UK ambulance changes mean more treated at home
|
|
Up to a million people calling emergency services could be treated at home rather than at hospital under a reorganisation of England’s ambulance service, Health Minister Lord Warner said on Thursday.
“We are going to develop and enhance the care that is available in our communities from the NHS by using ambulance services to take healthcare to the patient, to become a mobile healthcare system,” he said in a statement.
Health groups seek to intervene in U.S. tobacco case
|
|
Anti-smoking and health advocates made a bid to intervene in the U.S. government’s racketeering case against cigarette makers, telling a federal judge the Justice Department was not being tough enough on the industry.
Six anti-smoking groups said they filed with U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler arguing that they should be made formal parties to the lawsuit so they can propose stricter sanctions against the industry.
UK airline calls in sleep doctor to cure jet lag
|
|
British Airways has called in a specialist to find a cure for jet-lag, potentially a dream come true for sleep-deprived frequent flyers.
Sleep researcher Dr. Chris Idzikowski will spend the next six months studying the best way to snooze at 30,000 feet as well as tricking passengers’ body clocks to cope with time zone changes.
Whistle blower says drug industry cheated Medicaid
|
|
Settlements of cases involving prescription drug price manipulation in both the U.S. Medicaid and Medicare health programs provide “evidence of systemic, industry-wide problems that need to be addressed,” U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Wednesday.
At the second of 2 days of hearings on fraud in the Medicaid program, the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony from both state and federal officials detailing the more than $2 billion in recoveries from drug price manipulation over the past 4 years.
