Study Finds Nearly 30% of World Population Is Overweight or Obese; Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Jumped 27.5% for Adults, 47.1% for Kids From 1980 to 2013

Study Finds Nearly 30% of World Population Is Overweight or Obese

Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Jumped 27.5% for Adults, 47.1% for Kids From 1980 to 2013

BETSY MCKAY

May 29, 2014 8:11 a.m. ET

The obesity epidemic is global: 2.1 billion people, or about 29% of the world’s population, were either overweight or obese in 2013, and nearly two out of three of the obese live in developing countries, according to a study released Thursday. Read more of this post

The MacGyver Cure for Cancer

The MacGyver Cure for Cancer

By BONNIE ROCHMANMAY 23, 2014

Two decades ago, David Walmer went on a volunteer mission with his church to Haiti. He was sent to paint walls at a hospital in the seaside town of Léogâne, but when the people there learned that Walmer was a doctor — he was a fertility specialist at Duke University — they asked him to spend the week with a local obstetrician-gynecologist named Jean-Claude Fertilien. Walmer was shocked by what he saw: Fertilien finishing a hysterectomy with the aid of a flashlight when the hospital generator failed to restart, for instance, or when an anesthesiologist wasn’t available for an emergency C-section, the doctor just numbing the skin and cutting. At one point, Walmer was called to the bedside of a young woman in her mid-20s with undiagnosed cervical cancer who had gone into septic shock. There was nothing to be done for her, and she died right in front of him. Walmer was appalled. In the United States, cervical cancer is considered a preventable disease. Read more of this post

Use FAST clues to look for stroke (FAST = Face, Arms, Speech, Time)

Use FAST clues to look for stroke

Thu, May 22 2014

By Daniel Gaitan

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – May is National Stroke Awareness Month, and experts are using the time to teach Americans about the risk factors and warning signs. Read more of this post

How depression hurts the heart

How depression hurts the heart

May 12, 2014 – 7:27AM

Paula Goodyer is a Walkley award winning health writer

Smoking, inactivity, being overweight, high blood pressure: you can probably name a few risk factors for heart disease but there’s a good chance that depression won’t be among them. Although depression has been on the Heart Foundation’s list of risk factors for heart disease for over a decade most of us don’t realise the impact it can have on the health of our arteries or that the more severe the depression is the higher the risk. Read more of this post

The Rise of Antibiotic Resistance

The Rise of Antibiotic Resistance

By THE EDITORIAL BOARDMAY 10, 2014

The World Health Organization has surveyed the growth of antibiotic-resistant germs around the world — the first such survey it has ever conducted — and come up with disturbing findings. In a report issued late last month, the organization found that antimicrobial resistance in bacteria (the main focus of the report), fungi, viruses and parasites is an increasingly serious threat in every part of the world. “A problem so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine,” the organization said. “A post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can kill, far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century.” Read more of this post

Scientists Add Letters to DNA’s Alphabet, Raising Hope and Fear

Scientists Add Letters to DNA’s Alphabet, Raising Hope and Fear

By ANDREW POLLACKMAY 7, 2014

Scientists reported Wednesday that they had taken a significant step toward altering the fundamental alphabet of life — creating an organism with an expanded artificial genetic code in its DNA. Read more of this post

Patient’s Cells Deployed to Attack Aggressive Cancer

Patient’s Cells Deployed to Attack Aggressive Cancer

By DENISE GRADYMAY 8, 2014

Doctors have taken an important step toward a long-sought goal: harnessing a person’s own immune system to fight cancer.

An article published Thursday in the journal Science describes the treatment of a 43-year-old woman with an advanced and deadly type of cancer that had spread from her bile duct to her liver and lungs, despite chemotherapy. Read more of this post

Prices Soaring for Specialty Drugs, Researchers Find

Prices Soaring for Specialty Drugs, Researchers Find

By KATIE THOMASAPRIL 15, 2014

Even as the cost of prescription drugs has plummeted for many Americans, a small slice of the population is being asked to shoulder more and more of the cost of expensive treatments for diseases like cancer and hepatitis C,according to a report to be released on Tuesday by a major drug research firm. Read more of this post

Diabetes drugmaker raises VC funding at massive $1.5bn valuation; aims to transform Type II diabetes treatment of daily insulin injection into a once-per-year experience

Diabetes drugmaker raises VC funding at massive valuation

By Dan Primack April 1, 2014: 5:03 PM ET

Intarcia becomes one of very few biotech startups to gain “unicorn” status.

FORTUNE — For many Type II diabetics, it’s a familiar routine. Pull out a syringe once or twice per day, in order to inject medicine that will help your body better regulate its use of insulin. It can be inconvenient, expensive and mildly painful. Read more of this post

Drugmakers learn to blend commerce with philanthropy in Africa

Drugmakers learn to blend commerce with philanthropy in Africa

By Andrew Ward in London

Africa has rarely been a source of good publicity for big pharma. But two events this week suggest the drugs industry is finally developing a positive story to tell about its role there. Read more of this post

A hepatitis C pill from Gilead Sciences that costs $1,000 a day is on track to notch among the biggest sales ever for the first year of a newly approved drug, showing how hard it is for insurers to curb usage

Sales Soar for Pricey Hepatitis Drug Sovaldi

Treatment Costs $1,000 a Day, Posing Threat to Insurers’ Bottom Line

JONATHAN D. ROCKOFF

March 31, 2014 8:16 p.m. ET

A hepatitis C pill from Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD +3.37% that costs $1,000 a day is on track to notch among the biggest sales ever for the first year of a newly approved drug, showing just how hard it is for insurers to curb the use of pricey life-saving medicines. Read more of this post

Alternative treatment for cholesterol shows promise

Updated: Monday March 31, 2014 MYT 6:49:51 AM

Alternative treatment for cholesterol shows promise

WASHINGTON: An experimental treatment has shown promise in lowering bad cholesterol, offering hope for people at risk of heart disease but who cannot tolerate drugs known as statins, researchers said Sunday. Read more of this post

Setback for High Blood Pressure Treatment; A large study showed that renal denervation, which more than 80 countries have already approved, was no more effective than a “sham” procedure

Setback for High Blood Pressure Treatment

By DENISE GRADYMARCH 29, 2014

A promising treatment for severe high blood pressure has failed in a large, rigorous study, doctors reported on Saturday.

The treatment, called renal denervation, involves threading a tube through blood vessels into the renal arteries, then zapping them with radio-frequency energy to kill nerve endings. Read more of this post

U.S. wants at least $1 billion from drugmakers who delay generics

U.S. wants at least $1 billion from drugmakers who delay generics

Fri, Mar 28 2014

By David Ingram

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission seeks a settlement of $1 billion or more from pharmaceutical companies it has sued for delaying the sale of cheaper medicines after patents on brand-name drugs may have expired, an FTC official told a legal conference on Friday. Read more of this post

Isotope supplier Nordion to go private in $727 million deal

Isotope supplier Nordion to go private in $727 million deal

Fri, Mar 28 2014

(Reuters) – Sterigenics, a sterilization services provider owned by private equity firm GTCR LLC, has reached a deal to buy Canadian medical isotopes supplier Nordion Inc (NDN.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (NDZ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for $727 million. Read more of this post

Synthetic biology: DIY chromosomes; The first synthetic chromosome for a creature with complex cells, designed on a computer and made from scratch in a laboratory, is being put through its paces

Synthetic biology: DIY chromosomes; The first synthetic chromosome for a creature with complex cells, designed on a computer and made from scratch in a laboratory, is being put through its paces

Mar 29th 2014 | From the print edition

THE science of synthetic biology took an important step forward this week with the announcement in Science, by a team from Jef Boeke’s laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, of the first completely synthetic yeast chromosome. This takes the field from the bacterial realm to that of creatures like man. Read more of this post

Homeopathy: When a remedy contains medicine

Homeopathy: When a remedy contains medicine

Mar 28th 2014, 18:00 by C. H. | NEW YORK

HOMEOPATHIC remedies claim to cure all kinds of ills, from fever to depression. Exactly how they heal has always defied conventional scientific logic, as their “active” ingredient is present in such small amounts as not to be active—the more diluted the substance, according to homeopaths, the more powerful it becomes. American regulators allow the sale of homeopathic products, but do not require them to meet any standard for efficacy. That serves manufacturers well, as most homeopathic remedies consist of sugar or water. Read more of this post

Conscious Uncoupling for Drug Makers

Conscious Uncoupling for Drug Makers

By ROBERT CYRAN

MARCH 27, 2014, 2:42 PM  1 Comments

Baxter International has put conscious uncoupling on pharma’s radar.

The $40 billion health care giant isseparating its biotech and medical products units. Baxter’s spinoff history suggests this latest move will create value for shareholders. This, and the success of Pfizer’s and Abbott’s recent splits, will encourage other pharmaceutical giants to follow. Read more of this post

Exact Sciences Moves Closer to Preventing the No. 2 Cancer Killer: Colon cancer

SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2014

Exact Sciences Moves Closer to Preventing the No. 2 Cancer Killer

By ANDREW BARY | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Exact Sciences could rise 50% if its colon-cancer test ramps up quickly. Short sellers are betting against that.

A new colon-cancer screening test got a big boost last week when a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel unanimously recommended that the FDA approve the test. Called Cologuard, it will likely gain approval in the next few months and hit the market by the end of this year. Read more of this post

Novo Nordisk joins fight against diabetes epidemic in cities

Novo Nordisk joins fight against diabetes epidemic in cities

By Andrew Ward, Pharmaceuticals Correspondent

Novo Nordisk is to team up with some of the world’s biggest cities to find ways of tackling diabetes, amid warnings that the disease threatens a global “emergency” among growing urban populations. Read more of this post

U.S. autism rate surges to one in 68, CDC reports

U.S. autism rate surges, CDC reports

BY LENNY BERNSTEIN

March 27 at 1:25 pm

The number of U.S. children with autism has surged to one in 68, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, a 30 percent increase since the agency estimated just two years ago that one child in 88 suffered from the disorder.

Read more of this post

Autism Begins as Brain Cells Altered in Womb, Study Finds

Autism Begins as Brain Cells Altered in Womb, Study Finds Read more of this post

British cost agency to take broader view of drug value that may make it more likely that it will say “yes” to novel drugs in future

British cost agency to take broader view of drug value

8:03pm EDT

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) – British healthcare cost agency NICE is to take a broader view of the value offered by new medicines under proposals that may make it more likely that it will say “yes” to novel drugs in future. Read more of this post

Nitroglycerin, a Staple of Emergency Rooms, Is in Short Supply

Nitroglycerin, a Staple of Emergency Rooms, Is in Short Supply

By KATIE THOMAS and SABRINA TAVERNISEMARCH 25, 2014

Dr. Frederick Blum, at Ruby Memorial Hospital in West Virginia, says one or two patients might “exhaust our supply pretty quickly.” CreditTy William Wright for The New York Times Read more of this post

Investors brace for end of the biotech run

March 25, 2014 5:56 pm

Investors brace for end of the biotech run

By Andrew Ward in London and Arash Massoudi in New York

When the long bull run in biotech stocks came to a shuddering halt last week, Wall Street looked south to Capitol Hill for an explanation.

Henry Waxman, the veteran Democratic congressman, was blamed for spoiling the party after he and two colleagues wrote to Gilead Sciences questioning the $84,000-per-patient price of its new hepatitis C drug, Sovaldi.

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