A Harvard doctor and two hedge fund managers set up contest for cancer cure
Reuters May 23, 07 5:39 PM CDT
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Doctors and hedge fund managers are joining forces to battle cancer with a million-dollar prize for the most imaginative new approach. The Gotham Prize for Cancer Research will be awarded to the most innovative essay—posted to the website—on finding a cure for cancer. Leading medical researchers will judge the submissions at year's end.
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Crusading cardiologist took on Vioxx, now Avandia, for heart risks
Wall Street Journal May 22, 07 1:32 PM CDT
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The doctor who helped to raise concerns about the painkiller Vioxx is back—with the study released earlier this week linking the same company's popular diabetes drug, Avandia, to higher risk of heart attacks. The Wall Street Journal looks at 58-year-old cardiologist Steven Nissen's role in identifying and publicizing drug risks.
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New study documents dangers of Avandia, but company nixes recall
Associated Press May 21, 07 3:15 PM CDT
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A popular diabetes drug may increase heart attack risks, a study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes. Patients who took Avandia, which treats Type 2 diabetes, were 43% more likely to have a heart attack than those who took a placebo, the Cleveland Clinic study found.
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Careless prescriptions turned shy chess nerd into into belligerent hulk
Salon May 18, 07 9:44 PM CDT
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The careless prescription of anti-psychotic drugs, often by psychiatrists who draw pay checks from the companies who make them, has drawn attention in the New York Times recently. Now Ann Bauer, writing in Salon , draws an intimate portrait of the effects of such carelessness on one autistic teenager, who turned from shy chess nerd to psychotic bruiser.
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Guardian (UK) May 17, 07 2:31 PM CDT
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The British government has reversed its stance on the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos and will propose allowing scientists to use them as sources of stem cells. Scientists developing treatments for incurable diseases would be allowed to grow the hybrid embryos for no longer than two weeks, and implanting them into a human womb would not be permitted.
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Deal for developing nations first blow by Dems in Congress
Wall Street Journal May 17, 07 10:23 AM CDT
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Congress and the White House have agreed to give developing nations more access to affordable generic drugs by easing some patent enforcement rules. Tucked into a broader trade agreement passed last week, the provision is the first blow to American pharmaceutical companies since the Democrats won control of Congress, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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Der Spiegel May 16, 07 7:31 AM CDT
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Men with erectile dysfunction may get an assist, believe it or not, from the Brazillian wandering spider—also dubbed the banana spider for its propensity to hide in bunches of the fruit. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have isolated a compound in the spider's deadly saliva that causes erections, der Spiegel reports.
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Manufacturer, execs admit misleading public about risky painkiller
Associated Press May 10, 07 12:01 PM CDT
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The company that makes OxyContin pleaded guilty today to misleading the public about the effects of the potent painkiller. Purdue Pharma and three executives will pay $634.5 million in civil and criminal fines. Federal prosecutors accused the firm of "misbranding" the drug, marketing it as a less addictive alternative to traditional pain meds although no evidence supported the claim.
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Payments to psychiatrists from the drugs' makers soar at the same time
New York Times May 10, 07 10:23 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The Times tackles the growing use of antipsychotic drugs in children, contentious because the drugs are risky and have no approved use for minors. But the trend is also questionable because it coincides with increasing payments to psychiatrists by the companies that market the drugs. In Minnesota, these payments rose sixfold from 2000 to 2005.
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Among the world's top-selling medicines, the FDA now says they
may be unsafe
New York Times May 9, 07 8:34 AM CDT
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Doctors are paid millions of dollars by drug companies to give their patients anemia medicine which regulators now say may be dangerous. Spurred by competiton between several similar drugs, companies reward doctors with rebates, which allow them to make a significant profit, the New York Times reports.
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How a tailor in China passed glycol off as glycerin, and killed hundreds of children
New York Times May 6, 07 8:00 AM CDT
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American drugmakers are on the lookout this week for another in the growing list of potentially deadly Chinese exports. This time, it's diethylene glycol, a sweet-but-toxic chemical that masquerades as glycerin in common medications like cough syrup and that has already killed almost 400 people—many of them children—in Panama.
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Common variation
dramatically
increases risk
New York Times May 4, 07 7:50 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A gene that can more than double the risk of heart disease, especially in relatively young people, is present in about half of those of European descent, researchers say. The discovery, reported this week, raises hopes of more accurate genetic testing for heart disease—the world's leading cause of death—but not for prevention or treatment.
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Stunner Dutch study shows 70% higher risk
of dying from cancer
Daily Telegraph (UK) May 2, 07 12:01 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Left-handed women have a dramatically higher risk of mortality from just about every disease, a new study reported in the Telegraph shows. Dutch researchers who followed more than 12,000 women for nearly 13 years found lefties had a 40% greater chance of dying from any cause, 70% higher from cancer, and 30% higher from circulatory diseases.
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