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Pills

Europe Accuses Drug Makers of Padding Health Care Costs

Neelie Kroes
© Virginia Mayo/Associated PressNeelie Kroes, competition commissioner, said she would not hesitate to open antitrust cases.
The European Union accused drug companies on Friday of adding billions of dollars to health care costs by delaying or blocking the sale of less expensive generic medicines.

One common tactic, said Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner, was for drug companies to amass patents to protect active ingredients in the medicines - in one case, 1,300 patents for a single drug. Another tactic, she said, was for pharmaceutical companies to sue the makers of generic drugs for ostensible patent violations, which tended to delay the availability of the lower-cost products for years.

Ms. Kroes made her comments Friday while presenting the preliminary findings of a broad investigation into accusations of anticompetitive practices in the drug sector. She also turned her sights on the generics companies, which she said had received $200 million from pharmaceutical companies over seven years in exchange for holding their products off the market.

Syringe

'Healthy' baby died after MMR jab

A "healthy and robust" baby who died just ten days after being given the MMR jab had earlier suffered a fever fit which can be aggravated by the vaccine, an inquest heard today.

Comment: As Dr. Wakefield has said:
"I was accused of going beyond the science when I suggested that parents should have single jabs until the MMR had been properly assessed for risk.

"I had assessed the data and the safety study relied upon by the Department of Health and it was derisory. It was no way as good as the research into the single jabs.

"Bernadine Healy, the former head of the US National Institute for Health, admitted they had altered evidence on the epidemiological studies conducted by the US Government to suit the official line. She admitted the evidence both the US and UK relies on is useless.

"The UK Government has a big dirty secret that it doesn't want the public to know . . . they agreed to under write any compensation claims for the MMR. This is why they can't and won't let their position fail.

"It was inevitable I was going to be dragged in front of the GMC because I dared to question big business. They always come after those who don't toe their line."



Info

Brain's Magnetic Fields Reveal Language Delays In Autism

Faint magnetic signals from brain activity in children with autism show that those children process sound and language differently from non-autistic children. Identifying and classifying these brain response patterns may allow researchers to more accurately diagnose autism and possibly aid in developing more effective treatments for the developmental disorder.
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© Children's Hospital of PhiladelphiaA research subject reads instructions on a screen while seated with his head surrounded by the MEG's magnetic detectors.

Timing appears to be crucial. "Children with autism respond a fraction of a second more slowly than healthy children to vowel sounds and tones," said study leader Timothy Roberts, Ph.D., vice chair of radiology research and holder of the Oberkircher Family Endowed Chair in Pediatric Radiology at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Roberts used a technology called magnetoencephalography (MEG), which detects magnetic fields in the brain, just as electroencephalography (EEG) detects electrical fields.

Magnify

Scans Show Sound-Processing Deficits in Autistic Kids

Children with autism spectrum disorder process sounds a fraction of a second slower than other children, an abnormality that offers insight into listening and language issues linked to the condition, a new study says.

People

US: 1 in 5 young adults has personality disorder

Almost one in five young American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life, and even more abuse alcohol or drugs, researchers reported Monday in the most extensive study of its kind.

Health

Common Cold Virus Came From Birds About 200 Years Ago, Study Suggests

A virus that causes cold-like symptoms in humans originated in birds and may have crossed the species barrier around 200 years ago, according to a new article published in the Journal of General Virology. Scientists hope their findings will help us understand how potentially deadly viruses emerge in humans.
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© iStockphoto/Stephen Uber

"Human metapneumovirus may be the second most common cause of lower respiratory infection in young children. Studies have shown that by the age of five, virtually all children have been exposed to the virus and re-infections appear to be common," said Professor Dr Fouchier. "We have identified sites on some virus proteins that we can monitor to help identify future dominant strains of the virus."

Health

New HIV Cases Could Be Reduced By 95% With Universal Voluntary Testing And Immediate Treatment

Universal and annual voluntary testing followed by immediate antiretroviral therapy treatment (irrespective of clinical stage or CD4 count) can reduce new HIV cases by 95% within 10 years, according to new findings based on a mathematical model developed by a group of HIV specialists in WHO.

Authors of the study also report that the universal voluntary testing followed by immediate ART could have additional public health benefits, including reducing the incidence of tuberculosis and the transmission of HIV from mother to child. Additionally, the model suggests that there could be a significant reduction of HIV-related morbidity and mortality in resource-limited countries with generalized HIV epidemics.

The current WHO policy on treatment involves voluntary testing and clinical and/or immunological evaluation (e.g. CD4 count) to determine eligibility for treatment with antiretrovirals.

Info

Stevia to the rescue of Cola Makers?

Stevia
© BloombergStevia: “The foreigners are taking it all away.”
A leaf the Guarani Indians of Paraguay's jungles used to sweeten drinks for centuries may help Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. revive flagging sales in the $320 billion-a-year global soft-drink industry.

The Food and Drug Administration is poised to act on allowing a zero-calorie sweetener derived from the stevia plant grown in Paraguay and China. Approval may allow the world's two largest soda makers to reverse three years of U.S. soft-drink sales declines with beverages containing the natural extract, according to Mariann Montagne, an analyst at Minneapolis-based Thrivent Asset Management.

"They are really desperate for something to pick up colas," said Montagne, whose firm owns Coca-Cola and PepsiCo among the $70 billion it oversees. "There is definitely a need, and people will respond if they have this natural sweetener."

The two companies lost a quarter of their market value this year, falling about 8 percentage points more than the Standard & Poor's 500 Consumer Staples Index, as the world economy slowed. Massimo D'Amore, chief of PepsiCo's beverage division, said Nov. 20 the company will use a compound made from stevia as an alternative to higher-calorie or artificial sweeteners in some drinks as soon as the government gives "the green light."

Eye 1

Melatonin May Save Eyesight In Inflammatory Disease

Current research suggests that melatonin therapy may help treat uveitis, a common inflammatory eye disease.

People with uveitis develop sudden redness and pain in their eyes, and their vision rapidly deteriorates. Untreated, uveitis can lead to permanent vision loss, accounting for an estimated 10-15% of cases of blindness in the US. Uveitis has a wide variety of causes, including eye injury, cancer, infection, and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. There is currently no optimal treatment for uveitis. Corticoid steroid eye drops are often used; however, long-term corticoid use has many negative side effects, including the possible development of glaucoma.

Info

Cleanliness makes people less severe in moral judgments

New research in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science has found that the physical notion of cleanliness significantly reduces the severity of moral judgments, showing that intuition, rather than deliberate reasoning can influence our perception of what is right and wrong.
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© iStockphoto/Tomas BercicIn one experiment students watch a 'disgusting' film clip before rating moral dilemmas. However, half the group were asked to first wash their hands. Those with freshly washed hands exercised less severe moral judgment than their counterparts.
Lead researcher, Simone Schnall explains the relevance of the findings to everyday life; "When we exercise moral judgment, we believe we are making a conscious, rational decision, but this research shows that we are subconsciously influenced by how clean or 'pure' we feel.