CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co told Reuters on Tuesday that it plans to bring its Zilmax animal feed additive back for sale in the United States and Canada, after it completes an audit of how the muscle-building cattle feed product is used in th... More »
(Reuters) – Pfizer Inc reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, helped by cuts in costs and growing sales of cancer medicines approved over the past two years. The largest U.S. drugmaker, whose shares rose 1.7 percent, earned $2.59 bill... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – With the world tantalizingly close to wiping out polio, conflict in Syria has allowed the crippling disease to take hold again, putting at risk the rest of the region as well as plans for global eradication. War, unrest and poverty have ofte... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s Stada will sell a version of U.S. drugmaker Amgen’s blockbuster cancer treatment filgrastim in Europe, keeping faith with the difficult market for copies of medicines developed using biotechnology. The German generic drugmaker s... More »
(Reuters) – Biogen Idec Inc on Monday reported $286 million in third-quarter sales of its high-profile new multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera, providing fresh evidence that the medicine is off to an impressive launch and exceeding expectations. The company also... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazil´s top biomedical research and development center announced plans on Monday to produce a combined measles and rubella vaccine for developing countries, mainly in Africa. The first Brazilian vaccine developed specifically for ex... More »
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – A data center critical for allowing uninsured Americans to buy health coverage under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law went down on Sunday, halting online enrollment for all 50 states in the latest problem to hit the progr... More »
Surrogacy has its origins in ancient times. Many centuries ago infertile families also asked women to carry and give birth to their child. People did not call it surrogacy. Nevertheless since the birth of civilization to the present times children are consid... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline’s drug sales in China slumped 61 percent in the third quarter, hit by a bribery scandal that has damaged its ability to market products in the country and pushed some sales into the hands of rivals. Chief Executive Andrew Wit... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The number of people infected with tuberculosis (TB) or dying from it fell in 2012, but global progress on controlling the contagious lung disease is at risk from growing drug resistance. In its annual TB report, the Geneva-based World Healt... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG would not exclude a move into treatments for rare diseases, its CEO said on Wednesday, even if this represented very small numbers of patients. Chief executive Severin Schwan told a news conference in Paris th... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There is little evidence that employers are sacrificing full-time jobs by hiring more part-timers or reducing existing employee hours because of the costs of providing health coverage under Obamacare. Conservative Republicans have pointe... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Foes of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law lost a bid on Tuesday to put an immediate stop to a key part of the law – the insurance subsidies in the 34 U.S. states that declined to establish their own online marketplaces. At a court ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will declare the glitches in a new healthcare website “unacceptable” on Monday and outline ways for consumers to sign up for insurance while his team scrambles to fix problems that have tainted the rollout of his s... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Roughly half a million Americans have applied for health insurance through new federal- and state-run exchanges under President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, an administration official said on Saturday. That figure comes as pr... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. administration has a little over a month to fix the technology problems crippling its online health insurance marketplace, or jeopardize the goal of signing up millions of Americans in time for benefits under President Barack Ob... More »
(Reuters) – An insulin pill, long desired by diabetes doctors and patients but abandoned as not physically viable, could be available by the end of this decade as a tiny Israeli company races a Danish pharmaceutical giant to be first with what could be a multi... More »
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Human rights lawyers representing Haitian victims of a cholera epidemic they blame on U.N. peacekeepers announced on Wednesday they were filing a lawsuit against the United Nations, with a New York court seeking compensation from the... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Three U.S.-based scientists won the Nobel medicine prize on Monday for plotting how vital materials such as hormones and brain chemicals are transported within cells and secreted to act on the body, giving insight into diseases such as di... More »
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has been told by doctors to take a month off because of a subdural hematoma on her brain, forcing her to abandon campaigning for important congressional elections taking place later this month. Th... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Novartis said on Saturday its drug omalizumab was almost doubly effective in improving quality of life for patients with a severe form of hives, compared with a placebo, according to a late-stage study. The third and final la... More »
PASCAGOULA, Mississippi (Reuters) – As Americans across the nation begin to find out what Obamacare has in store for them, many of Mississippi’s most needy will find out the answer is nothing. That is likely the case for William and Leslie Johnson of Jackson C... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Stress reduction exercises have been linked to many health benefits, but lower blood pressure may not be one of them. A new study found eight weeks of mindfulness meditation had no effect on people with slightly elevated blood press... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. government on Wednesday scrambled to add computer capacity to handle an unexpectedly large number of Americans logging onto new online insurance marketplaces created under Present Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law. Technical glitches an... More »
(Reuters) – Patients and investors gauging the impact of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law on hospitals, clinics and other providers need look no further than Tenet Healthcare Corp, the country’s No. 3 for-profit hospital chain. The Dallas, Texas-... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stephanie Desaulniers is among the millions of Americans seeking information on new Obamacare health insurance plans launched this week, not because she lacks coverage, but because she’s ready for a better deal. The 26-year-old geologist h... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Blank boxes where security questions are supposed to appear. Pleas to “be patient.” Error messages galore. Notices that “the system is busy right now.” Web pages timing out before they load. Garbled lines of text riddled with stray questio... More »
(Reuters) – Technical glitches and heavy internet traffic slowed Tuesday’s launch of new online insurance exchanges at the heart of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform, showcasing the challenge of covering millions of uninsured Americans. The opening it... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Millions of Americans will learn on Tuesday what President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law actually means for them, as the administration opens new insurance marketplaces in 50 states despite a government shutdown. The launch mark... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is due to lead officials spotlighting the opening day sign-up on Tuesday for his landmark healthcare program even as staunch Republican opposition to the plan shut down government operations. Obama is scheduled to ... More »
(Reuters) – The Obama administration accelerated its push to persuade individual Americans to sign up for the most extensive overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system in 50 years, even as the program’s foes in Congress fought to delay its launch with the threat o... More »
MUMBAI (Reuters) – The pharmaceutical industry should support the Chinese government’s efforts to curb corruption, French drugmaker Sanofi’s Chief Executive Chris Viehbacher said on Monday. A crackdown on corruption in China’s pharmaceutical sector has hurt sa... More »
ANAND, India, Sept 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Dressed in a green surgical gown and cap, British restaurateur Rekha Patel cradled her newborn daughter at the Akanksha clinic in northwestern India as her husband Daniel smiled warmly, peering in through a ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Fixing ailing drugmaker AstraZeneca remains a work in progress for Chief Executive Pascal Soriot, with sales and profits still heading firmly downhill after his first year in the job. Yet confidence is slowly building that he may have the ri... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – Jang Chang-yoon was drunk and weepy one rainy night, troubled by debts from his divorce. On a dark impulse, the South Korean waiter bought a bottle of pesticide to end it all with a few toxic swigs. At the last minute, he changed his mind whe... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Just days before the launch of the new U.S. state health insurance exchanges that are the centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act, a nationwide push is still under way to test and patch the technology behind the online sites. Officials work... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – An experimental Roche drug that seems to work particularly well against lung cancer in smokers may be a “game changer” for these normally difficult-to-treat patients, researchers said on Sunday. Presenting detailed data from an early-stag... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives on Sunday, ignoring a White House veto threat, approved a one-year delay in funding major provisions of President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law as part of a government funding bill. Republicans attac... More »
(Reuters) – Hold the fries, pass the salad. McDonald’s Corp on Thursday said it would offer healthy options as part of its popular value meals, letting customers choose a side salad, fruit or vegetables instead of french fries. The announcement by the world’s ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government on Thursday announced new delays in rolling out President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform, saying small business and Spanish-language health insurance enrollment services would not begin on October 1 as planned. The ... More »
CHICAGO/LONDON (Reuters) – In 2006 when doctors started testing a melanoma treatment made by Roche Holding AG on patients, they were used to facing slim odds – about one in eight – that the tumors would shrink on chemotherapy. This time, they couldn’t believe ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senior U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation in the Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday to extend for another decade a successful and popular program to combat AIDS worldwide launched 10 years ago by former President George ... More »
(Reuters) – Americans will pay an average premium of $328 monthly for a mid-tier health insurance plan when the Obamacare health exchanges open for enrollment next week, and most will qualify for government subsidies to lower that price, the federal government... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will turn to his unofficial “secretary of explaining stuff,” former President Bill Clinton, on Tuesday to help with a final push to extol the benefits of U.S. healthcare reform before new insurance exchanges go live ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – American companies are sending shockwaves through the healthcare industry by moving a rapidly growing number of employees onto privately run online exchanges for their medical coverage. In a business already bracing for major change becaus... More »
(Reuters) – Home Depot Inc is shifting medical coverage for part-time workers to new public marketplace exchanges ahead of new benefits requirements under the U.S. Affordable Care Act, a spokesman said on Thursday. The world’s largest home improvement retail c... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A 90-year-old helium reservoir in Texas could shut down next month causing disruptions and raising costs for makers of high-tech products from MRI scanners to semiconductors and threaten medical treatments and research. More than 100 organis... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government on Wednesday scaled back its projections for Obamacare’s impact in 2014, saying the law would generate slower healthcare spending growth and provide coverage to only half as many of America’s uninsured as anticipated ... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc said it plans to set up a new company called Calico, headed by Apple Inc and Genentech Chairman Art Levinson, to develop technologies to tackle health issues related to aging. The new company will be run separately from Goo... More »
(Reuters) – During a visit to a facility of leading Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd last year, U.S. inspectors found that a black fiber embedded in a tablet may have been a hair from an employee’s arm, according to documents seen by Reuters. That and... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration said on Tuesday it will extend the protection of U.S. minimum wage and overtime law to almost two million home health workers who assist the elderly and disabled, setting an assertive tone for the new U.S. labor ... More »
(Reuters) – Will Obamacare’s launch look more like Black Friday, when U.S. shoppers flood retail stores for bargains the day after Thanksgiving, or April 15, when procrastinators wait until nearly midnight to file their taxes? Officials involved in implementin... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British cosmologist Stephen Hawking has backed the right for people who are terminally ill to choose to end their lives and to receive help to do so as long as safeguards are in place. The wheelchair-bound Hawking was diagnosed with motor ne... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Roche has picked Deutsche Lufthansa Chief Executive Christoph Franz to succeed Franz Humer as chairman of its board, filling the top post at a time of change for the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs. Franz, 53, who has been a member of ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nearly every oncologist can tell the story of cancer patients who beat the odds, responding so well to treatment that they continued to live many years disease-free, while most of their peers worsened and eventually died. Dr. David Solit d... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top labor leaders left the White House on Friday after an hour-long meeting with President Barack Obama, still looking for a way to address concerns that “Obamacare” will hurt their members’ healthcare plans. The dispute with unions – tr... More »
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Governor Tom Corbett is expected to propose early next week that Pennsylvania extend Medicaid benefits to more low-income residents, likely helping them purchase private insurance using Medicaid funds, a Republican state representative... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese authorities visited a local office of German drugmaker Bayer AG in late August to investigate a potential case of unfair competition, the company said on Friday. China’s regulators have been probing numerous international and Chine... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – Detroit’s emergency manager is considering ending its health insurance coverage for city retirees under age 65 and giving them a modest stipend to purchase insurance from the health exchanges being established under Obamacare, according to ... More »
MUMBAI (Reuters) – U.S. inspectors visiting a factory in India owned by drugmaker Wockhardt Ltd in March found torn data records in a waste heap and urinals that emptied into an open drain in a bathroom six meters from the entrance to a sterile manufacturing a... More »
(Reuters) – Roche Holding AG’s drug Perjeta, currently approved to treat metastatic breast cancer, should also be approved to help shrink tumors prior to surgery, an advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday. The panel voted 13 t... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Exercise may help ease symptoms of depression, according to a fresh look at past research. Researchers who analyzed data from previous studies found people who exercised experienced a “moderate” reduction in their depressive symptom... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal advisory panel recommended approval of GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s new drug to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD), but suggested the company be required to conduct further safety studies once the drug is approved. The ... More »
LONDON (Reuters)- As Susan sits chatting to a nurse in a London clinic, a light tapping sound by her head signals that parts of her brain are being zapped by thousands of tiny electro-magnetic pulses from a machine plugged into the wall. The 50 year-old doctor... More »
(Reuters) – IBM plans to move U.S. retirees off its company-sponsored health plan and shift them into new private insurance exchanges as a way of lowering costs for retirees. IBM had selected Extend Health, which is owned by Towers Watson & Co, to provide reti... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Weeks before healthcare exchanges under President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul open next month, a Republican senator attacked the plan on Saturday by saying Americans may experience “sticker shock” from higher prices. Senator John ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – About one in four U.S. deaths from heart disease could be avoided with better prevention efforts and treatment, according to a first-of-its-kind report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Tuesday. As many as... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The hunt for new heart drugs is losing momentum as resources are switched to other areas, notably cancer research, where investors get a better bang for their buck. Cardiologists fear the fight against heart disease could stall as a resul... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis said on Tuesday its arthritis drug Ilaris was approved in the European Union to treat children aged two years and older. Novartis said Ilaris is already sold for treating cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes, a rare inflammatory ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Groups on the popular networking site Facebook may help educate men about HIV prevention and testing, a new study suggests. Researchers found that specially-created Facebook social media groups helped encourage men who have sex with... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The average height of European men grew by a surprising 11 centimeters from the early 1870s to 1980, reflecting significant improvements in health across the region, according to new research published on Monday. Contrary to expectations, th... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Life expectancy for women at 50 has improved, but the gap between poor and rich countries is growing and could worsen without better detection and treatment of cardiovascular disease and cancers, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on M... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A new blood clot preventer from Daiichi Sankyo proved as effective as widely used warfarin in treating a dangerous condition known as venous thromboembolism and caused less bleeding, a large clinical trial found. The Japanese drugmaker ho... More »
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who is leading a conservative push to eliminate funding for President Barack Obama’s new healthcare law, took his fight on Saturday to a forum of Republican activists where he challenged lawmakers in his par... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was investigating a case of a rare and serious brain infection that developed in a patient in Europe, who was being treated with Novartis’s multiple sclerosis drug, Gilenya. The FDA said this was the fi... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson is joining the hunt for drugs to treat dengue fever – the world’s fastest-spreading tropical disease – by linking with academic researchers in Belgium and the Wellcome Trust medical charity. There is currently no drug treat... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – A Danone SA unit said on Thursday it was considering legal action against New Zealand’s Fonterra after the maker of Karicare milk formula had to recall products due to incorrect tests that led to global food safety scare. Initial tests p... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – The Thai government plans to appeal a court victory by tobacco giant Philip Morris to keep larger health warnings off cigarette packets for sale in Thailand. The Central Administrative Court ruled last Friday to temporarily suspend a new he... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Dairy giant Fonterra’s products at the center of a global contamination scare this month did not contain a bacteria that could cause botulism, and posed no food safety threat, New Zealand officials said on Wednesday. The Ministry for Pri... More »
WELLINGTON/DHAKA (Reuters) – New Zealand’s Fonterra said on Wednesday some of its milk powder products had been held up for chemical testing in Bangladesh, the latest country to stop the company’s products at its borders after a food safety scare earlier this ... More »
NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa (Reuters) – The Pennsylvania girl who underwent a double lung transplant after a court battle over U.S. organ donation policies waved slowly and mouthed “Hi” to well wishers on Tuesday, her first day home from the hospital. Dressed from head... More »
(Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Tuesday it will offer health insurance benefits to domestic partners of its U.S. employees starting next year, following the lead of other major companies. The world’s largest retailer, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, al... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Positive results for Roche’s experimental eye drug should bolster its position in the multibillion-dollar-a-year market for vision loss treatments, as it looks to branch out beyond its core cancer expertise. After scrapping drugs to treat di... More »
DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh customs authorities have restricted the import of more than 600 metric tons (661.39 tons) of powdered milk mainly from New Zealand-based Fonterra pending mandatory chemical tests, a senior official said on Tuesday. Fonterra, the wo... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Bayer’s cancer drug Nexavar was given priority review status by U.S. healthcare regulators for the oral drug’s use against a difficult-to-treat type of thyroid cancer, the company said on Tuesday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration aim... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – If uninsured young Americans shun the new health plans offered under President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law, it will be because the insurance costs too much and not because they don’t expect to need much medical care, according to ... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Malaysian entrepreneur Matt Chandran wants to revive the moribund post-mortem by replacing the scalpel with a scanner and the autopsy slab with a touchscreen computer. He believes his so-called digital autopsy could largely displace the c... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis said on Tuesday U.S. regulators have granted breakthrough therapy status for its investigational compound bimagrumab for the potential treatment of patients with sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM). The U.S. Food and Drug Admini... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Celebrity trainer Bob Harper, of the weight-loss TV show “The Biggest Loser,” has built a career putting very obese people through some grueling fitness paces but if he’s learned anything from the experience, it’s that diet trumps exercise... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand on Monday announced plans for a government inquiry into how ingredients made by dairy giant Fonterra became contaminated with a botulism-causing bacteria, as the country tries to salvage its reputation as an exporter of safe ... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – More New Zealand milk products sold to China have been banned after elevated levels of nitrates were found, raising further concerns over quality and testing in the world’s largest dairy exporter in the wake of a contamination scare earl... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Children exposed to two chemicals commonly used in food packaging are more likely to be obese or show signs of diabetes precursors than those with lower exposure, new research suggests. Researchers found urine levels of one type of ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Obesity levels among adults appear to be holding steady across the United States, adding to recent evidence that the growth rate for U.S. waistlines is slowing, according to an analysis released on Friday. But within the holding pattern ... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – A Sri Lankan court on Friday issued an order preventing the sale, distribution and advertising of all Fonterra milk products for two weeks, a lawyer who appeared on behalf of the petitioner said. “An enjoining order was issued preventing Fo... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Roche Holding AG has decided not to pursue a patent application for its breast cancer drug Herceptin in India, the Swiss company said on Friday, as Western drugmakers come under pressure over high prices in the fast-growing market. The Kolka... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Children who drink soda tend to score slightly higher on scales that measure aggressive behavior than kids who don’t drink the carbonated beverages, according to a new study. The study’s lead author cautioned, however, that the incr... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Kurt is a 32-year-old IT systems administrator from Des Moines, Iowa. He has a colleague who had been prescribed “ridiculous amounts” of Vicodin for a chronic back problem. His colleague offered him some of the pills. Soon Kurt was taking ... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China is intensifying its investigation into rampant bribery in the pharmaceutical and medical services sector with a fresh three-month probe slated to begin on Thursday, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The investigation by the S... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hit by years of budget cuts, some U.S. public school boards are looking to avoid providing health benefits to substitute teachers and supporting staff under President Barack Obama’s reform law, education officials say. According to the l... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Monday it has approved GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s drug Tivicay to treat the most common strain of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The once-daily drug, known generically as dolutegravir, belongs t... More »
