Medications/Drugs News Headlines

(Reuters) - Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc said it redesigned an ongoing late-stage study on its experimental anti-psychotic drug for Parkinson's disease patients, and that it plans to conduct an identical study to win regulatory approval. The redesigned study will include only patients from North America, and will exclude …

Managers of Guatemala's biggest hospital have declared the facility to be in a state of emergency due to a massive supply shortage.

British doctors may be lacking an understanding of the important role that exercise plays in preventing and treating illness, according to a new report released Thursday.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - B.Braun, an unlisted maker of medical devices, has acquired options to buy a stake of German hospital operator Rhoen-Klinikum, two people familiar with the matter said, further dimming Fresenius SE's chances of taking control of Rhoen. B.Braun, which supplies products ranging from catheters to surgical …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Cynthia Craig was diagnosed with postpartum depression eight years ago, she told her family doctor she felt anxious about motherhood. She wondered whether she had made a catastrophic mistake by quitting her job, whether she could cope with the long, lonely hours stay-at-home mothers face - and …

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

THURSDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- Many home aides who care for the elderly in the United States have no training and don't undergo stringent background checks or drug tests, a new study finds.

Researchers Say New Drugs Offer Needed Hope, but Will They Come in Time?

(Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn stepped up pressure on Forest Laboratories Inc on Thursday, warning that time was running out for it to accept his nominees to the company's board of directors. Icahn appealed to Forest's non-management board members, saying his attempts to reach an amicable agreement with Chairman …

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Medical records that patients can access online may encourage more people to get recommended screening tests and immunizations, a new study suggests. In a clinical trial at eight primary care practices, researchers found that patients who used such "interactive" health records were more likely …

(Reuters) - Industry analysts on Thursday predicted annual sales of up to $3 billion for a Merck osteoporosis drug shown to be effective before its clinical trial was completed, and said the development could provide a needed jolt of faith in Merck's overall drugs pipeline. Merck, the second-biggest U.S. drugmaker, on Wednesday …

(Reuters) - The Food and Drug Administration plans to provide medical device makers feedback before they apply for marketing approval to help companies identify regulatory requirements early in the device development process. The new program, called "Pre-Sub," comes a day after the Congress passed the FDA User Fee Reauthorization …

Growth in global spending on medications will slow markedly over the next four years due to a slew of new low-cost generic drugs coming to pharmacies in the U.S. and other developed countries, along with slower increases in what those countries spend on brand-name drugs, according to a new forecast.

Office Denies Rumors of Alcoholism, Substance Abuse

Sometimes the best intentions can go awry. Take OxyContin, for example. The prescription opioid was known for being widely abused, as users intensified its effects by smashing up the pills, then snorting or injecting them.

Swiss researchers have identified a gene crucial to the development of melanoma, one of the most feared and aggressive cancers in the world. Their discovery gives new hope to those at elevated risk for this type of cancer and those who have already had a brush with it, as I have.

Nikolai Leonov was walking through this Moscow suburb with his 2-year-old daughter when the toddler bent down and picked up a bloodied syringe from the grass. "I snatched it away from her a second before she could hurt herself," Leonov said, still shaken days later.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Doctors may be more willing to use hormone replacement therapy (HRT), or recommend it to their wives, than to prescribe it to their patients, a study of German gynecologists suggests. Nearly all were willing to recommend HRT for hot flashes, a typical menopause problem, whether to a partner or …

LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca Plc has clinched two new deals in neuroscience, underlining the drugmaker's increasing reliance on external projects to refill a sparse pipeline as it tests a new low-cost approach to drug research. Britain's second-biggest pharmaceutical company said on Thursday it had bought a portfolio …

LONDON (Reuters) - British group GlaxoSmithKline has pulled a U.S. application seeking approval to use its breast cancer drug Tykerb in combination with Roche's rival product Herception for certain patients with advanced disease. A green light for combined administration of the two drugs would expand the use of GSK's Tykerb …

(Reuters) - Most people are unwilling to contradict their doctor in discussions on medical treatment, according to a U.S. survey showing that most want a say in treatment decisions or they may end up not following the advice. The findings, which appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine, are based on an online panel …

WEDNESDAY, July 11 (HealthDay News) -- An HIV drug significantly reduced the risk of graft-versus-host disease, an all-too-common complication in blood cancer patients following bone marrow transplants, new research finds.

WEDNESDAY, July 11 (HealthDay News) -- Drinking one or two alcoholic beverages several times a week may improve the bone health of older women and reduce their risk for osteoporosis, a small study suggests.