Posts filed under 'Health Care'
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Extremely drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, is a growing problem in India affecting mostly young, working-age people, researchers said Tuesday at the American Thoracic Society’s 2007 conference.
The first study of the problem in India found that XDR-TB accounted for 8.0 percent of multi-drug resistant cases in the country, twice the number in the United States, the ATS conference said in a press release.
XDR-TB is even more dangerous than the already-recognized threat from multi-drug-resistant TB, MDR-TB, strains of tuberculosis resistant to at least the two first-line drugs, isoniazid and rifampicin. XDR-TB is MDR-TB that is also resistant to three or more of six classes of second-line drugs, the statement added.
Sushil Jain, of the Hinduja National Hospital in Mumbai, India, said his medical team examined 3,904 lab samples, finding that 1,274 were positive for Mycobacterium tuberclosis.
Thirty-two percent of the positive samples were found to be MDR-TB, out of which 8.0 percent were XDR-TB, Jain reported.
He said the death rate among the XDR-TB patients was an “alarmingly high” 42 percent.
“An important finding was that the majority of patients with XDR-TB were of younger age group (averaging 30 years old), thus posing a major threat to our economically productive population,” Jain said.
He said it was impossible to determine the prevalence of XDR-TB in India, since most of its labs are not equipped to perform drug susceptibility tests, and that treatment of the disease was compounded by its huge cost.
“Serious efforts are needed to tackle this deadly disease which may become a global emergency,” Jain said.
Around 1.6 million people die from TB each year, making tuberculosis the deadliest infectious disease on the planet after AIDS and ahead of malaria, according to the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO).
Source : news.yahoo.com
May 22nd, 2007
Sun Pharma has acquired Israel-based Taro Pharma for USD 454 million, reports CNBC-TV18. The company will acquire Taro shares at USD 7.75 in cash, a 27% premium to its May 18 closing. The transaction represents a total equity value of approximately USD 230 million. The domestic pharma major will refinance about USD 224 million in net debt of Taro. Sun Pharma had raised USD 350 million in FCCBs in 2004. The FCCB proceeds are to be used to fund Taro Pharma acquisition.
Sun Pharma will provide USD 45 million interim equity to Taro by buying 7.5 million shares immediately.
Sun Pharma expects a consolidated FY08 sales growth of 15-18%. This guidance also including revenues accruing from Taro. The company would invest 8-10% of its revenues in R&D.
It believes that synergies will arise from cross selling to customers. Sun Pharma will close the deal in three-to-four months.
Meanwhile, Franklin Advisers, Templeton AMC, which hold 9% of the company’s ordinary shares, has filed a suit against Taro’s equity financing. The litigation case on Taro will be heard today and the company has said it will contest the litigation vigorously. Taro Pharma had posted sales of USD 298 million and a loss of USD 5.7 million in 2005.
Source : Moneycontrol.com
May 21st, 2007
The maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin and three of its current and former executives pleaded guilty Thursday to misleading the public about the drug’s risk of addiction, a federal prosecutor and the company said.
Purdue Pharma L.P., its president, top lawyer and former chief medical officer will pay $634.5 million in fines for claiming the drug was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said.
The plea agreement settled a national case and came two days after the Stamford, Conn.-based company agreed to pay $19.5 million to 26 states and the District of Columbia to settle complaints that it encouraged physicians to overprescribe OxyContin.
“With its OxyContin, Purdue unleashed a highly abusable, addictive, and potentially dangerous drug on an unsuspecting and unknowing public,” Brownlee said. “For these misrepresentations and crimes, Purdue and its executives have been brought to justice.”
Purdue spokesman James Heins objected to any suggestion of ties between the plea agreement and the abuse of OxyContin.
“We promoted the medicine only to health-care professionals, not to consumers,” he said in a statement.
Privately held Purdue learned from focus groups with physicians in 1995 that doctors were worried about the abuse potential of OxyContin. The company then gave false information to its sales representatives that the drug had less potential for addiction and abuse than other painkillers, the U.S. attorney said.
Ken Jost of the Justice Department’s Office of Consumer Litigation said this case should put pharmaceutical companies on notice that they won’t be able to get away with breaking the law to make a profit.
“The things that they plot in their boardrooms, the things that they do behind closed doors will not stay behind closed doors,” Jost said. “We have the people, we have the resources. We’ll take the time and we’ll take the effort to find out what they did and how they did it.”
Source: abcnews.com
May 11th, 2007
Alt-medicine practitioners look for shield
Amanda Battaglia - The Daily Iowan
What stands in the way of regular physical activity? Time? Energy? Work? School? Family? Finances? Sounds like a priority issue. Many of us are pressed for time. Many struggle with stress coupled with gray, rainy Seattle winter days sucking energy right out of us. Most of us work, some with school on top of it. Many have family obligations and struggle to make ends meet. And we all have priorities. The key is making physical activity a priority.
You are not alone. About 40 percent of the population is sedentary, with only 20 percent meeting minimum recommended activity levels for cardiovascular health. Have you started and stopped an exercise program, sometimes repeatedly? More than 50 percent of individuals who begin an exercise program quit within six months.
Here are some ways to bring better physical activity into your life:
Be realistic. Set realistic short- and long-term goals.
Reward yourself when you reach those goals.
Build on success. Start a program in which specific goals are attainable, then build on those.
Find a partner to motivate you on days you don’t feel like doing anything.
Create variety and change your routine.
Focus on all the benefits of adding a regular activity routine into your life.
Find an activity you will enjoy.People ask, “What is the best exercise I can do?” The correct response: “Whichever one you will do!” Remember any activity is better than no activity. Your body and mind will thank you for it.
Tiffany Reiss, Ph.D.; School of Nutrition & Exercise Science, Bastyr University
Bastyr is a non-profit, private university offering graduate and undergraduate degrees, with a multidisciplinary curriculum in science-based natural medicine. The university’s Seattle teaching clinic, Bastyr Center for Natural Health, is the Northwest’s largest natural medicine clinic.
February 22nd, 2007
Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine Accepted for Coverage in MEDLINE
By: PR Newswire
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, February 21 /PRNewswire/ — Elsevier (LSE: REL , NYSE: ENL), the world’s leading scientific, technical and medical publisher has announced that its journal, Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine has been selected for inclusion in MEDLINE(R). Maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine(R), MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online) is the premier bibliographic database containing approximately 13 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.
Nanomedicine: NBM Editor-in-Chief, Chiming Wei, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, commented, “The entire Editorial Board and I are extremely pleased that Nanomedicine: NBM is being added to the MEDLINE journal collection so soon after its launch in March 2005 in recognition of its scientific merit and contribution to the field. Inclusion in this prominent database will help investigators throughout the world more easily locate articles published in Nanomedicine: NBM.
Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine (www.nanomedjournal.org), the Official Journal of the American Academy of Nanomedicine (AANM), is an international, peer-reviewed journal published quarterly. Nanomedicine: NBM publishes basic, clinical and engineering research in the innovative field of nanomedicine. Article categories include diagnostic, experimental, clinical, engineering, pharmacological and basic nanomedicine. Nanomedicine: NBM provides the latest information in this rapidly developing field, covering both research advancements and clinical applications. The Journal publishes original clinical and investigative studies, state-of-the-art papers, reports on new equipment and techniques, review articles and more.
Nanomedicine, an offshoot of nanotechnology, refers to highly specific medical intervention at the molecular scale for curing disease or repairing damaged tissues, such as bone, muscle or nerve. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, too small to be seen with a conventional lab microscope. It is at this size scale - about 100 nanometers or less - that biological molecules and structures inside living cells operate.
The National Library of Medicine MEDLINE selection process is managed by an advisory committee, the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee, composed of authorities knowledgeable in the field of biomedicine, such as physicians, researchers, educators, editors, health science librarians and historians, to review and recommend the journal titles NLM should index. With inclusion in MEDLINE, citations, abstracts and indexing terms for articles published in Nanomedicine: NBM will be available online in the U.S. and throughout the world back to Volume 1/Issue 1. MEDLINE is searchable for free using PubMed at http://pubmed.gov.
Elsevier, a world-leading medical and scientific publisher, brings the full support of its global organization to the journal. It is recognized for its numerous long-standing and successful society-publishing partnerships, as well as excellence in all aspects of the publishing process. ScienceDirect (www.sciencedirect.com), Elsevier’s world-class electronic platform with over 16 million users, provides online access to the full text of Nanomedicine: NBM to institutional subscribers. Members of the affiliated society and individual subscribers are able to access the journal via www.nanomedjournal.org.
February 22nd, 2007
By Michael Seabaugh, February 21, 2007
About this time of year, when the dewy-eyed hope of our new year’s resolutions start fading into cynicism, we need a new dose of hope. As your eagle-eyed health columnist, I can provide. There is plenty of optimistic news coming our way for improving your healthspan. Here are a few that have caught my eye.
A toast to Alzheimer’s with a glass of red
In what is being hailed as a “breakthrough study,” the good folks at Mount Sinai School of Medicine are putting the finishing touches on the stellar reputation of red wine as a health drink. Add Alzheimer’s prevention to the long list health benefits. Red wine is rich in polyphenols, the anti-oxidant compounds that have already been shown in prior studies to break up the plaque build up in the brain that is widely seen as the culprit in Alzheimer’s. In the study presented at the most recent meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, the wine imbibing mice went on a binge for seven months and ended up with a reduced concentration of the beta-amyloid plaque in the brain as compared to the more sober mice.
By the way, cabernet sauvignon was singled out as being particularly beneficial. At least it wasn’t merlot.
Niacin in training in the fight against aging
Research coming out of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia has found that a component of niacin (also known as vitamin B3), shows great promise for slowing down the aging process. The B3 component can activate an enzyme called sirtuin which has been shown to extend the lives of different kinds of organisms. In a prepared statement, senior study author Ronen Mamorstein said, “Our findings suggest a new avenue for designing sirtuin-activating drugs. The jury is still out as to whether a drug of this kind might result in longer life in humans, but I’m equally excited by the possibility that such interventions might help counteract age-related health problems like obesity and Type 2 diabetes.”
Where there is hope there’s a way. Stay tuned on this one.
Good news for menopausal women seeking options
In the upcoming issue of Menopause, a scientific advisory panel convened by the American Menopause Society will issue an important new position statement on hormone therapy (HT). It eases the position on whether women should take hormones to lessen menopausal symptoms.
Dr. Wulf Utian, director of the Menopause Society, said in a statement made to Heartwire: “For women with severe menopausal symptoms, within a few years of their last period, hormone therapy shouldn’t be as scary as it has been made out to be.”
In the same interview, he pointed out that older women, who are still experiencing troubling menopausal symptoms, need to consider whether to resume HT more carefully, as they are “at a higher absolute risk for cancer and heart disease.” Recommendations are that women who wish to use HT start out on the lowest possible dose and only increase gradually until symptoms abate. As to the problems associated with HT, Dr. Utian noted that both breast cancer and heart attacks are rare, although the risk for stroke is slightly higher in older women.
First non-prescription diet pill approved by the FDA
For all of us whose metabolisms have slowed to snail’s pace and yet are intent on weighing what we did in college, this may be at least convenient news. Alli, the first FDA approved over-the-counter med is coming to town. It is a lower dose version of Xenical, which works by blocking the absorption of fat and its attendant calories. Alli is safe and can help dieters lose up to 16 pounds. You have to be willing to put up with flatulence and greasy stools. But what price health and beauty, right?
And finally, a novel way to live longer
Mice who were genetically engineered to have lower body temperatures lived the equivalent of eight years longer in human years. How this might be applicable to humans is still being looked at. For now, I think it might be advisable to find ways to chill out.
February 22nd, 2007
