(Reuters Health) – Symptoms of aggression and agitation in dementia patients may respond better to non-drug therapies such as massage, touch therapy and outdoor activities, a new study suggests. In a reanalysis of more than 163 studies involving nearly 25,000 ... More »
(Reuters Health) – British citizens with HIV who live in Spain could face serious healthcare challenges post-Brexit, potentially risking public health at large, researchers say. A no-deal Brexit could leave many patients with HIV or other chronic conditions in... More »
(Reuters) – A New York court on Thursday temporarily halted a state ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, giving the embattled vaping industry a breather just a day before the state’s prohibition was due to take effect. The appellate court ruling puts a ho... More »
(Reuters) – AstraZeneca Plc and Merck & Co Inc said on Monday their drug to treat a form of ovarian cancer improved progression-free survival in patients tested in a late-stage study. The study tested Lynparza in patients as an add-on to an already existing st... More »
DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s drug regulatory authority on Sunday issued a ban on sales of popular heartburn drug ranitidine while it investigates a potential cancer-causing substance in the drug. The move comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FD... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis said on Sunday that Kisqali helped women with advanced breast cancer after menopause live longer, adding to data the Swiss company hopes will help convince doctors to choose its drug over Pfizer’s blockbuster Ibrance. Kisqali plus t... More »
(Reuters) – People should stop using e-cigarettes, especially those with marijuana ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), U.S. public health officials recommended on Friday, as an investigation into illnesses and deaths related to vaping deepens. E-cigarettes ... More »
BARCELONA (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca both reported trial results that will likely make their competing drugs available to a wider group of ovarian cancer patients, possibly helping GSK catch its rival in a highly contested drug class. The two ... More »
(Reuters) – An experimental Amgen Inc drug that targets a specific genetic mutation shrank tumors in just one of 12 patients with advanced colorectal cancer who were given the highest dose in a small, early-stage trial, the company said on Saturday. The cancer... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday announced a ban on all flavored e-cigarettes besides tobacco and menthol in response to a recent nationwide spate of sometimes deadly lung illnesses that U.S. health officials have linked to vaping.... More »
(Reuters) – A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Friday recommended approving the first therapy for peanut allergies, which affect over 1.6 million children in the United States, despite raising concerns about the risk of severe allergic react... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. and European drug regulators said on Friday they are reviewing the safety of the widely taken heartburn drug ranitidine, commonly known by the brand name Zantac, after they found traces of a probable cancer-causing impurity in some versions of... More »
(Reuters) – Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Tuesday France’s Sanofi SA will pay the drugmaker $260 million for the termination of their partnership to develop diabetes drug Zynquista. Shares of Lexicon jumped 37.8% to $2.37 in after hours trading. Under th... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Xeris Pharmaceuticals Inc’s glucagon therapy that aims to treat severely low sugar levels in diabetes patients, the drugmaker said on Tuesday. The condition, called hypoglycemia, can cause acute co... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. consumer and trade regulator said on Tuesday it had warned three companies selling products infused with cannabidiol that it was illegal to advertise that such products could fight disease without providing credible scientif... More »
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – The death toll from Democratic Republic of Congo’s year-long Ebola outbreak has climbed above 2,000, government data showed on Friday, as responders battle to overcome community mistrust and widespread security pr... More »
KAMPALA (Reuters) – A nine-year-old girl has died of Ebola in the East African nation of Uganda, a hospital official said, a day after she tested positive for the disease after crossing the border from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. “It is true she ... More »
NORMAN, Okla./BOSTON (Reuters) – An Oklahoma judge on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) to pay $572.1 million to the state for its part in fueling an opioid epidemic by deceptively marketing addictive painkillers, a sum that was substantially less than ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said on Monday that it will move ahead with a long-delayed expansion of its marijuana research program, in a sign that the Trump administration’s hostility to the drug may be waning as a growing n... More »
(Reuters) – An Oklahoma judge on Monday ruled that Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) was liable for its part in fueling the opioid epidemic and ordered the drugmaker to pay $572 million following a trial in a lawsuit brought by the state’s attorney general. J&J said i... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis (NOVN.S) plans to answer a U.S. senator who demanded details about data manipulation related to its gene therapy Zolgensma, amid scrutiny of the Swiss drugmaker’s decision to delay informing regulators until after the treatment’s ap... More »
(Reuters) – AbbVie Inc has priced its new rheumatoid arthritis treatment at $59,000 a year after gaining U.S. approval on Friday, a big boost for the drugmaker struggling with rising competition for Humira, its blockbuster therapy for the same condition. A fou... More »
(Reuters) – Roche Holding AG has priced its personalized cancer treatment, Rozlytrek, at about $17,050 per month, nearly half of the monthly price of a rival drug from Bayer AG and Eli Lilly and Co that was approved last year. Roche’s drug and Bayer/Lilly’s Vi... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Celgene Corp’s Inrebic to treat certain rare forms of bone marrow cancer called myelofibrosis, making it the second approved drug to treat the disease. Inrebic belongs to a class of drugs kno... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – As the Oct. 31 deadline for Britain to leave the European Union approaches, health professionals are warning that shortages of some medicines could worsen in Europe in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Britain’s food and drink lobby warned la... More »
GOMA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization said it has vaccinated over 1,300 people who potentially came into contact with the Ebola virus in the Congolese city of Goma, helping contain what many feared would be a rapid spread in an urban center. A year-lo... More »
(Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Friday upheld two patents relating to Amgen Inc’s blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel, denying a challenge by Novartis AG, which is seeking to launch a copycat version. The decision was a relief to investors concerned about... More »
TORONTO (Reuters) – The Canadian government announced final regulations on Friday that should cut billions of dollars from patented drug prices that are among the highest in the world, overcoming heavy opposition from pharmaceutical companies who may eventuall... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd’s treatment for adult patients with a type of rare, non-cancerous tumor affecting joints and limbs. The label for the treatment, Turalio, includes a boxed warning flaggi... More »
(Reuters Health) – – Binge drinking, often associated with young adults, isn’t as rare as some might think among older Americans, a recent U.S. study suggests. Almost 11% of adults aged 65 and older reported binge drinking – having more than five drinks for me... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis’s heart failure drug Entresto failed a trial in a new use, the Swiss drugmaker said on Monday, calling into question billions of dollars in potential revenue and taking the shine off one of the company’s biggest growth prospects. Th... More »
WINDSOR, Ontario (Reuters) – U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders joined diabetes patients as they drove across the border on Sunday to buy cheap insulin in Canada, highlighting his argument in favor of federally negotiated prescript... More »
(Reuters) – French drugmaker Sanofi SA said on Friday it had terminated its partnership with Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc to develop and manufacture a drug for use with insulin in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Lexicon shares fell nearly 40% in exten... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – The United States could bolster the battle against the Ebola virus in Democratic Republic of Congo by allowing more of its experts to travel to the outbreak zone, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Friday. The virus ha... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak could last much longer and cost far more in money and lives unless U.N. member states inject hundreds of millions of dollars now, U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told Reuters on Monday. Spea... More »
(Reuters) – Oklahoma’s attorney general is expected on Monday to urge a judge to find Johnson & Johnson responsible for flooding the market with painkillers and fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic, as the first trial in nationwide litigation over the drug crisis ... More »
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – Unidentified attackers killed two Ebola health workers in eastern Congo over the weekend, the health ministry said, the latest in a string of assaults that have hampered efforts to stop the deadly spread of the vi... More »
GOMA (Reuters) – Unidentified attackers killed two Ebola health workers in eastern Congo over the weekend, the latest in a string of assaults that have hobbled efforts to contain the second largest ever outbreak of the deadly virus, the health ministry said. T... More »
(Reuters) – British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said on Monday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve its diabetes treatment, Farxiga, for use as a supplement to insulin in adults with a rare-type of the condition. The company said the regulat... More »
(Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline said on Monday a late-stage study testing its initial maintenance therapy, Zejula, in patients with ovarian cancer who have undergone platinum-based chemotherapy showed positive results. Zejula, which belongs to a promising class of... More »
(Reuters Health) – Women who fill prescriptions for custom-blended hormone therapy may get capsules or creams that don’t contain the correct amount of medicine, a recent study suggests. Researchers focused on what’s known as compounded hormone therapy – prescr... More »
(Reuters Health) – Overall, men know the transition through menopause can bring difficult symptoms for their wife or partner and that there may be ways to ease some of them, a small survey suggests. But if men knew more about the symptoms and therapeutic optio... More »
More American and Canadian teens are vaping than ever before, according to a new study, and researchers say the availability of e-cigarettes with more nicotine may partly explain the trend. The study team examined data on smoking and vaping by youth in Canada,... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. drug regulator on Friday approved Palatin Technologies and Amag Pharmaceuticals’ drug to restore sexual desire in premenopausal women, the latest attempt to come up with a therapy that some have dubbed as “female Viagra”. The therapy, Vyle... More »
(Reuters) – Pfizer Inc said on Monday it would buy Array Biopharma Inc for $10.64 billion in cash, a deal it hopes will help make it a leader in colon cancer and build up its pipeline of oncology drugs. The largest U.S. drugmaker agreed to pay a hefty premium ... More »
(Reuters Health) – A class of medications used for nerve and muscle pain, including the popular drug Lyrica, increases users’ risks for suicidal behavior, unintentional overdoses, injuries and car accidents – and the risks are particularly high for teens and y... More »
(Reuters) – The United States recorded 22 new measles cases last week, bringing the year’s total number of cases to 1,044 in the worst outbreak of the disease since 1992, federal health officials said on Monday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevent... More »
(Reuters) – VBI Vaccines Inc said on Monday a late-stage study was unsuccessful in showing two doses of its hepatitis B vaccine were as effective as three doses of an older vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline, sending its shares plunging 66%. The study tested VBI’s S... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Doing things one at a time in drug development is not a luxury that GlaxoSmithKline can afford any longer, the head of pharmaceuticals at Britain’s largest drugmaker told Reuters. Luke Miels, who joined GSK in September 2017 after a contract... More »
LONDON – The persistence of Congo’s Ebola outbreak and its deadly spread to Uganda in recent days show how societal issues are as crucial as scientific advances in controlling disease outbreaks, specialists in global public health say. Medical scientists, prom... More »
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Roche’s $4.3 billion takeover of U.S. gene therapy specialist Spark Therapeutics has been pushed back again, possibly beyond the first half, as regulators continue to scrutinize the deal for its effect on competition. Roche s... More »
(Reuters Health) – In people at high risk for type 1 diabetes, 14 days of therapy with the experimental drug teplizumab delayed development of the disease by a year or more, according to results from a mid-stage study presented Sunday. The 76 study participant... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – A federal judge on Friday tossed the convictions of a co-owner and former employee of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy accused of conspiring to help it evade regulatory oversight before its drugs caused a deadly 2012 fungal meningitis ou... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission on Friday issued warning letters to four flavored e-liquid product makers, stepping up pressure on firms using social media influencers to promote their products. Social media m... More »
BOSTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said on Sunday it had agreed to pay an $85 million settlement with the state of Oklahoma days before the company was set to face trial over allegations that it and other drugmakers helped fuel the... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Malachi Anderson was diagnosed with a rare and often deadly disease called spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) as an infant nearly four years ago, his parents Tina and Torence had a decision to make. In years past, many of the babies born w... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Cases of European firms forced to transfer technology in China are increasing despite Beijing saying the problem does not exist, a European business lobby said, adding that its outlook on the country’s regulatory environment is “bleak”. Chi... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned of risks of serious injury or death from surgical staplers made by Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon unit, labeling a recent recall of the device as its most serious. The recall, initiated early April by Ethic... More »
Millions of people in the U.S. have chronic viral hepatitis, most without knowing it, so the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other groups have designated May as Hepatitis Awareness Month and May 19 as Hepatitis Testing Day. “Hepatitis is a silen... More »
(Reuters) – AbbVie Inc said on Friday it has halted enrollment of patients in all ongoing studies testing its brain cancer treatment after the drug failed to meet the main goal in a late-stage trial. The company’s shares fell 1.8 percent to $78.10 before the b... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ chief financial officer on Sunday reiterated that the company has done nothing wrong in the wake of a price-fixing lawsuit filed by 44 U.S. states. Mike McClellan told a conference in Israel that the suit w... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. states filed a lawsuit accusing Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc of orchestrating a sweeping scheme with 19 other drug companies to inflate drug prices – sometimes by more than 1,000% – and stifle competition for generic drugs, state pr... More »
INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) – Eli Lilly and Co has pulled ahead in a three-way race with Amgen Inc and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd in attracting new patients to a new class of migraine drugs, and seeks to build on that advantage by stressing that its therapy... More »
GV, Alphabet Inc’s venture capital arm, led a $58.5 million investment to launch Verve Therapeutics, a new biotech focused on developing therapies that edit the human genome to treat heart diseases. Gene editing therapies are seen to have huge scope in treatin... More »
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo/GENEVA (Reuters) – The death toll from an Ebola outbreak in Congo rose above 1,000 on Friday, with attacks on treatment centers continuing to hamper efforts to control the “intense transmission” of the second-worst epidemic o... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top legislature will consider tougher rules on research involving human genes and embryos, the first such move since a Chinese scientist sparked controversy last year by announcing he had made the world’s first “gene-edited” babies.... More »
(Reuters) – Novartis AG, which this week announced positive interim trial results for its experimental gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy, on Friday said investigation is underway into whether a second trial death could be related to the treatment. Novar... More »
(Reuters) – Generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd on Friday received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its generic nasal spray for opioid overdose, the health regulator said. This is the first approval of a gene... More »
(Reuters Health) – People who suffer from conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, a Swedish study suggests, and the risk may be greatest in the months right after stress disorders are diagnose... More »
(Reuters) – British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc said on Monday the European Commission approved its diabetes drug Forxiga for use as an oral supplement to insulin in adults with a rare type of the disease. Forxiga can now be used along with insulin in patients w... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve a drug developed by Sanofi SA and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc intended for use with insulin in patients with type 1 diabetes, the companies said on Friday. The decision comes about two month... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. health regulators said on Friday a third cancer-causing toxin was found in some blood pressure pills recalled by India’s Hetero Labs Ltd a day earlier, adding to a global recall of commonly used drugs to treat hypertension. The U.S. Food and D... More »
(Reuters) – Endo International Plc said on Friday the U.S. health regulator has decided not to include blood pressure treatment vasopressin in its list of drugs that can be used in compounding, in a boost to the drugmaker that makes the only FDA-approved versi... More »
(Reuters Health) – Even medicines that are years past their expiration date and haven’t always been kept in strict climate-controlled conditions may still retain their original potency, a small study suggests. That is good news for people working in remote are... More »
(Reuters) – Drug developer UniQure NV said on Friday its gene therapy to treat hemophilia B increased the levels of a protein that helps in blood clotting after 12 weeks in a small study. The company’s shares rose 5.5 percent in light premarket trading. The up... More »
(Reuters) – Drugmakers warned on Friday that if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal next month Britons could miss out on an EU-wide system to fight counterfeit drugs that will go live on Saturday after years of British involvement in building it. ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday it will start adding the price of its medicines to television commercials by next month, becoming the first drugmaker to heed a call by U.S. President Donald Trump for price transparency of drugs advertise... More »
(Reuters Health) – Patients may have less access to palliative care at U.S. hospitals that primarily serve minorities, a study suggests. Minorities in the U.S. often receive worse healthcare and have worse outcomes, researchers note in JAMA Network Open. Non-w... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday it was taking action against certain retailers including Walgreen Boots Alliance for repeatedly flouting tobacco sale rules, including sale of cigars and menthol cigarettes to minors. Walgreens... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Prior infection with dengue, a mosquito-borne disease that infects nearly 400 million people a year, could reduce the risk of contracting Zika nearly by half, U.S. and Brazilian researchers reported on Thursday. The finding, published in th... More »
(Reuters) – Shares of U.S. gene therapy companies sank on Thursday after drugs developed by two small firms failed to show promise in separate clinical trials, underscoring the challenges in an emerging, lucrative field of biotech. Experimental treatments deve... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – When Medicare prescription drug insurance was created in 2003, the idea that beneficiaries with very high drug costs should pick up 5 percent of the tab seemed reasonable – but that was well before specialty drugs were invented that carry p... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak has spread southwards into an area with high security risks, the World Health Organization said. The outbreak, the country’s worst, has killed 439 of the 713 people believed to have caught the di... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – CVS Health Corp, a top U.S. manager of pharmacy benefits, has added new migraine drugs from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Eli Lilly and Co to its list of covered drugs, excluding a rival treatment from Amgen Inc, a CVS spokeswoman tol... More »
(Reuters Health) – Patients who receive the flu vaccine while hospitalized are no more likely to develop fever or require extra doctor or hospital visits after they go home than inpatients who don’t get vaccinated, a large study suggests. Even though most peop... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s health ministry has sought to reassure HIV patients that sufficient antiretroviral (ARV) drugs will be available for their treatment after some hospitals had run out of supplies. At least 29 hospitals and health centres in Indon... More »
LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) – At least $14 billion is needed to accelerate the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and quell stubborn epidemics that still kill millions, the head of a global health fund said on Friday. Announcing a fundraising target for... More »
(Reuters Health) – Diabetic patients who take statins to treat high cholesterol may get an added benefit: a lower risk of damage to the retina, a new study suggests. Researchers found that diabetic patients taking statins were 14 percent less likely to develop... More »
(Reuters) – Eli Lilly and Co remains in the hunt for cancer drugs even after announcing an $8 billion purchase of Loxo Oncology this week, but it plans to remain on the sidelines when it comes to two of the hottest areas of drug development. Lilly Chief Execut... More »
(Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline Plc will actively look to buy early-stage assets and partner with companies, the drugmaker’s chief executive officer said on Tuesday. Britain’s biggest drugmaker is also likely to evaluate licensing deals and would continue to inves... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Sanofi’s new pediatric vaccine immunizing children against six diseases, the French pharmaceutical lab said on Wednesday. Sanofi developed the new vaccine, dubbed Vaxelis, in partnership with Mer... More »
(Reuters) – Merck KGaA and Pfizer Inc said on Friday they were ending a late-stage study for their drug to treat a form of ovarian cancer in previously untreated patients. The results showed the drug, Bavencio, in combination with, or as a follow-on treatment ... More »
(Reuters Health) – – Isotretinoin, a drug for severe chronic acne, has long been linked to miscarriages, birth defects and other serious problems, but a research review suggests much of data on the drug’s safety, effectiveness and side effects may be unreliabl... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Stemline Therapeutics Inc’s Elzonris for the treatment of a rare blood disease in adults and children aged two years and above. This is the first approved treatment for the condition, blastic... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved on Friday Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc’s rare blood disorder drug Ultomiris, an early backing that also solidifies the company’s dominant market position. The company’s flagship drug, Soliris, was the l... More »
JINAN, China (Reuters) – In the near pitch-dark, you can hear them before you see them – millions of cockroaches scuttling and fluttering across stacks of wooden boards as they devour food scraps by the tonne in a novel form of urban waste disposal. The air is... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A global coalition set up to fight disease epidemics is investing up to $8.4 million to develop a synthetic vaccine system that could be tailor-made to fight multiple pathogens such as flu, Ebola, Marburg and Rabies. The deal, between the Co... More »
(Reuters Health) – – Breast cancer survivors may be more likely to experience anxiety, depression, sleep troubles and other mental health issues than women who have not been diagnosed with the disease, a research review suggests. The study team examined data f... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to buy U.S. cancer specialist Tesaro for $5.1 billion, a costly investment to rebuild the pharmaceuticals business by new Chief Executive Emma Walmsley that unnerved investors. GSK has lagged rivals in recent years... More »
(Reuters) – Israel-based RedHill Biopharma Ltd said on Monday its combination antibiotic met the main goal of a late-stage study testing the drug in patients with a type of bacterial infection that affects the stomach and small intestine. The drug, Talicia, er... More »
