"Health News - Medicine, Diet and Fitness"

Supporters vow to keep fighting for measure this year

SACRAMENTO—Doctors, patients, consumer groups and health care advocates were dealt a setback by the state Senate this week when it failed to advance the Pharmaceutical Drug Right-to-Know Act. The legislation, SB 1683 by Senator Jack Scott (Altadena), would have required pharmaceutical companies to disclose the results of all their health studies, good and bad. It was introduced in response to the VIOXX tragedy, which was worsened by drug giant Merck's cover-up of its own negative health studies, and other drug safety tragedies like it.

(more…)

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston report finding a new way to increase stem cells in blood, suggesting a possible treatment to help patients who undergo chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant for leukemia and other cancers recover their immune function more quickly. In the June 21 issue of Nature, they demonstrate that a stable analog of prostaglandin can enhance the blood-forming system, both during embryonic development and after it’s been damaged.

(more…)

Eli Lilly is to buy back worldwide marketing rights for Yentreve/AriClaim (duloxetine hydrochloride) from Boehringer Ingelheim. As a stress urinary incontinence (SUI) treatment, along with future related urinary incontinence indications, the drug will continue to be marketed outside the US by Lilly but other treatments using duloxetine will remain under both firms.

Lilly president and chief operating officer John Lechleiter said: “Based on our collective experiences to date in the marketplace, both companies believe that the Yentreve/AriClaim opportunity is best suited and can be best commercialised in markets outside the US with the support of one company. “This is about ‘right sizing’ our investments to address our greatest opportunities and the greatest patient needs.” Dr Alessandro Banchi, Boehringer Ingelheim chairman of the board of managing directors, added: “There has been an excellent spirit of collaboration in our alliance with Lilly.
(more…)

Washington — The American College of Physicians has endorsed the concept of a single-payer health care system for the first time.

In a new position paper, the organization, which represents 124,000 physicians in internal medicine and related subspecialties, identified a system in which the federal government is the sole third-party payer as one of two reform vehicles to achieve universal coverage. The other is a public-private system that includes a legal guarantee that everyone has access to coverage and that offers health care subsidies to low-income residents.

(more…)

Belgian firm Solvay has released its results for 2005 with pharmaceutical sales up 30 per cent to 2.27 billion euros. The company as a whole had profits of 816 million euros for the year.

In the pharmaceutical sector sales were helped in Europe by the purchase of the French firm Fournier Pharma. A company statement said: “The performance of fenofibrate, Fournier Pharma’s ‘blockbuster’, was remarkable and above our expectations.” Sales in cardiometabolics doubled with the integration of fenofibrates from Fournier Pharma.
(more…)

Women can safely have DIY abortions at home, a study has concluded. The pilot study, set up by the Department of Health (DoH), found that women less than nine weeks pregnant could safely have the medical abortion outside of hospital.

None of the 172 women, who were given tablets to terminate their pregnancy supervised by a nurse in a health centre, suffered serious complications. Shirley Butler, who managed the pilot project, said: “This has been a successful pilot and it has proved that abortion is safe outside a hospital. “We have had few problems. Some women experienced pain and they were given painkillers. “One woman had haemorrhaging, but if she had been at home she would have called our helpline and she would have been given help.”
(more…)

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed.Thanks for visiting!

In this HealthTalk rheumatoid arthritis program, Drs. Philip Mease and Mark … So these tests don’t give the whole picture but they can really help a lot in …

Rheumatoid Arthritis | Virtua Health, New Jersey
Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammation of the lining that covers the various … Inflamed, painful and stiff joints are only part of the RA picture. …

(more…)

Uninsured Sacramento Residents Pay 68 Percent More than the Federal Government

SACRAMENTO—Uninsured consumers in Sacramento pay 68 percent more for common prescription drugs than the federal government does for the same medications, according to, “Paying the Price: The High Cost of Prescription Drugs for Uninsured Californians” a new California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) Education Fund report released today.

(more…)

STANFORD, Calif. - The drug most commonly used to arrest preterm labor, magnesium sulfate, is more likely than another common treatment to cause mild to serious side effects in pregnant women, according to a study from researchers at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford University School of Medicine.

Their findings suggest that, since the effectiveness of the two drugs appears similar, physicians should consider side effects more strongly when choosing which drug to prescribe.

(more…)

Statement by Mike Russo, Health Care Advocate and Staff Attorney for CALPIRG:

“CALPIRG applauds the Assembly’s passage today of the comprehensive health care reform bill, ABX1-1. The reform will greatly expand coverage, contain the surging costs of health care, and give consumers a fair shake when buying insurance.The bill:

Creates a large purchasing pool to let many Californians who currently lack access to group coverage gain access to the risk-sharing and bargaining power a pool provides.
(more…)