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Merck to pay over $650 million for fraudulent price reporting and kickbacks claims

Merck & Company has agreed to pay more than $650 million to resolve allegations that the pharmaceutical manufacturer failed to pay proper rebates to Medicaid and other government health care programs and paid illegal remuneration to health care providers to induce them to prescribe the company's products, the Justice Department has announced.

8 Feb 2008

Significantly higher success rates with artificial insemination

In future a new method could help some couples who are childless against their will.

7 Feb 2008

New technique boosts success rates with artificial insemination

In future a new method could help some couples who are childless against their will. The microscopic procedure significantly improves the success rate of 'ICSI' (intracytoplasmic sperm injection).

6 Feb 2008

New European cosmetic regulation to strengthen product safety and to cut red tape

The European Commission has proposed to simplify the European law on cosmetics and: 27 transposing national pieces of legislation representing over 3500 pages of legal text will be replaced by one single regulation.

5 Feb 2008

Massachusetts health care subsidy program cost, enrollment could double over three years

Commonwealth Care, Massachusetts' subsidized health insurance program, is expected to double in enrollment and cost by June 2011, which "would far outstrip the original plans" for the program "largely because state officials underestimated the number of uninsured residents," the Boston Globe reports.

4 Feb 2008

Female Russian smokers double since collapse of the Soviet Union

The number of Russian women who smoke has more than doubled since the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to research published in the journal Tobacco Control.

31 Jan 2008

Bush in State of the Union address calls on Congress to allocate $30 billion for PEPFAR

President Bush on Monday during his last State of the Union address urged Congress to authorize a $30 billion, five-year extension of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the New York Times reports (Stolberg, New York Times, 1/29).

30 Jan 2008

Texas officials studying needle-exchange program

Health officials in Bexar County, Texas, are considering if they should launch the state's first needle-exchange program in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV and other bloodborne diseases, but Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed has said that she will not hesitate to prosecute anyone who distributes needles before the program is approved, the Los Angeles Times reports (Bustillo, Los Angeles Times, 1/28).

30 Jan 2008

UK Doctors failing gender disordered children

Gender disordered children as young as ten are being denied desperately needed hormonal drugs leading to bullying, violence and even suicide according to new research.

From The University of Manchester 23 Jan 2008

Heart and stroke death rates steadily decline; risks still too high

In an appropriate prelude to American Heart Month, which is just ahead in February, new mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that, since 1999, coronary heart disease and stroke age-adjusted death rates are down by 25.8 percent and 24.4 percent, respectively.

23 Jan 2008

British scientists given go-ahead for human-animal embryo research

Scientists in Britain have been given the go-ahead to create human-animal hybrid embryos for research.

20 Jan 2008

Hormonal nutritional supplements might speed prostate cancer progression

Hormonal components in over-the-counter dietary supplements may promote the progression of prostate cancer and decrease the effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered.

16 Jan 2008

FDA says meat from cloned animals is safe but not everyone agrees

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States has announced that meat from cloned animals is safe for human consumption.

16 Jan 2008

Maryland Court rejects Thimerosal - autism link

Wyeth has announced that The Honorable Stuart R. Berger of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City in Baltimore, Maryland, has granted Wyeth's motion to preclude plaintiffs' expert witnesses in an alleged vaccine injury case from testifying that exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccines can cause autism..

16 Jan 2008

Hormonal components in over-the-counter dietary supplements might promote prostate cancer progression

15 Jan 2008

Internet and IT increase physician disease reporting

With emerging diseases like the West Nile Virus, and re-emerging diseases such as the pandemic flu and drug-resistant tuberculosis, it's increasingly important to promptly detect a potential infectious outbreak within a community.

15 Jan 2008

British Prime Minister in favour of presumed consent for organ transplants

British Prime Minister Gordan Brown is calling for a debate on organ donation and says he is in favour of a policy known as "presumed consent" ; this would allow for organs to be transplanted without consent.

14 Jan 2008

AHF to Schwarzenegger: Re-consider proposed budget cuts in AIDS services

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has urged California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to reconsider and reverse $11 million of proposed budget cuts in AIDS services that will reduce and threaten vital lifesaving care and services for Californians living with HIV/AIDS as he seeks to close a $14 billion deficit in the state budget.

11 Jan 2008

Bio-identical hormone replacement therapies targeted by FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent letters warning seven pharmacy operations that the claims they make about the safety and effectiveness of their so-called "bio-identical hormone replacement therapy," or "BHRT" products are unsupported by medical evidence, and are considered false and misleading by the agency.

10 Jan 2008

Real concerns over the ethics of a DNA database

The inventor of DNA fingerprinting, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, of the University of Leicester, has voiced his concerns over the ethics of a DNA database.

10 Jan 2008