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 AstraZeneca closes in on site for new home in Cambridge
 By Ben Hirschler and Tom Bill LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca is closing in on a site for its new $500 million home in Cambridge, with a biomedical park just south of the English city the most likely site, property industry sources said. Moving research and global headquarters to Cambridge, with minimal disruption, is a key test for new Chief Executive Pascal Soriot as he tries to change the drugmaker's culture and puts ground-breaking science at the center of its activities. The move to the university city, involving nearly 2,000 jobs, is the centerpiece of a $2. ...
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UK tries out new model for gene testing in cancer patients
 By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Britain launched a research program on Monday that should eventually allow all cancer patients to have access to the kind of genetic analysis that led Hollywood star Angelina Jolie to decide to undergo a double mastectomy. The project, involving the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London, the U.S. gene sequencing firm Illumina, geneticists and cancer doctors, aims to find a way to allow more cancer genes be tested in more people. Researchers announcing the 2. ...
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Measles surges in UK years after flawed research
 LONDON (AP) — More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of now discredited research that linked the vaccine to autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease.
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Physician, hack thyself
 Biohackers are gulping down Dave Asprey's Bulletproof Coffee Breakfast. What the heck is it -- and more importantly, does it work?
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What Are the Odds Your Kid Will Be Obese?
There’s plenty of research out there showing that too often parents are blind to their child’s weight problem. They simply don’t see it. Or they rationalize it away.
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FDA staff says Merck's sleep drug effective, questions dosage
By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Merck & Co's experimental insomnia drug suvorexant appears generally effective, according to reviewers at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but they questioned the company's proposed dosing levels. The reviewers posted their comments on the FDA's website on Monday, two days ahead of a meeting of outside medical experts which will advise the agency on whether or not it should approve the drug. Merck's shares fell 1.1 percent to $45.49 in midday trading. ...
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XenoPort to drop multiple sclerosis drug, shares fall
By Vrinda Manocha (Reuters) - XenoPort Inc said it would stop development of an experimental multiple sclerosis treatment it planned to launch in 2015 after a late-stage trial failed to show significant improvement over a placebo. Shares of the company fell 26 percent to $5.03 in morning trade on the Nasdaq. "This is disappointing, given (the drug's) promising mid-stage data," Wells Fargo analyst Brian Abrahams wrote in a note to clients. "We had modeled sales of $77 million by 2017 for the product. ...
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Victoria's Secret Rejects 'Survivor' Bra
Allana Maiden and her mother, Debbie Barrett, of Virginia. Allana Maiden wanted her mother to feel beautiful again after she’d undergone a radical mastectomy. But Victoria’s Secret, the company she hoped would design sexy lingerie for women who’ve had breast cancer surgery, has rejected her...
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Victoria's Secret Declines to Make 'Survivor' Bra Line
Allana Maiden and her mother, Debbie Barrett, of Virginia. Allana Maiden wanted her mother to feel beautiful again after she’d undergone a radical mastectomy. But Victoria’s Secret, the company she hoped would design sexy lingerie for women who’ve had breast cancer surgery, has rejected her...
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What Your Sunscreen Should—and Shouldn’t—Have
First and foremost, spring and summer mean sun. We all know we need some of it (sunshine enables our body to absorb vitamin D, which is essential for bone density and a strong immune system), but there’s also the sun’s not-so-healthy aspect: skin cancer. Since 1975, rates of melanoma—the deadliest kind of skin cancer—have tripled, reaching nearly one-quarter of the population, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). ...
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Actavis to buy Warner Chilcott in $5 billion stock deal
By Caroline Humer and Ransdell Pierson (Reuters) - Generic drugmaker Actavis Inc, itself a recent takeover target, said on Monday it would buy specialty pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott Plc for $5 billion in stock to expand its branded drug portfolio, lower taxes and increase profits. The Warner Chilcott acquisition brings two new businesses - gastroenterology and dermatology - and adds additional women's health drugs like branded contraceptives to Actavis, which makes and sells drugs that are no longer under patent protection. ...
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Bayer says lung drug shows promise in prolonged trial
 FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bayer said extended use of its experimental riociguat pill to treat a life-threatening form of high blood pressure in the lungs was shown to be safe and effective in a prolonged trial. In the extension of a late-stage trial, the drug was shown to help people suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a progressively worsening condition that can overburden the heart, to better tolerate physical exercise. It said that side effects, including headache, dizziness, indigestion and low blood pressure, were tolerable. ...
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Vermont passes law allowing doctor-assisted suicide
By Jason McLure (Reuters) - Vermont on Monday became the fourth U.S. state to end legal penalties for doctors who prescribe medication to terminally ill patients seeking to end their own lives. The law, which includes a number of safeguards over the next three years as the state adapts, marked the first time a U.S. state has used the legislative process to make assisted suicide legal. Oregon and Washington have similar laws passed through ballot measures and a Montana court authorized the practice in 2009. ...
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Royalty raises Elan bid, issues ultimatum to shareholders
 By Padraic Halpin and Jessica Toonkel DUBLIN/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Royalty Pharma raised its hostile bid for Elan to $12.50 per share and threatened to withdraw the bid if Elan shareholders approve a series of defensive transactions announced by the Irish drug firm. Royalty Pharma, which buys royalty streams of patented drugs, said Elan's efforts to reinvent itself through a series of acquisitions and debt deals were hasty and ill-conceived. Royalty's new bid for Elan values the company at around $6.4 billion and comes in the face of Elan's insistence that it is worth more. ...
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Omaha police exploring possible link in two double homicides
By Katie Schubert OMAHA (Reuters) - Investigators in Omaha are looking at whether the murders discovered last week of a doctor and his wife are connected to the unsolved 2008 murders of a young boy and his family's housekeeper, police said on Monday. Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife, Mary, both 65, were found murdered last Tuesday in their west Omaha home. Brumback was a professor at Creighton University School of Medicine and a doctor with Alegent Creighton Health. ...
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Health sites too complex, full of cliches: study
By Ivan Oransky NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The importance of health literacy hit home for Lisa Gualtieri when a Cambodian refugee diagnosed with cancer asked her to act as a patient advocate. She played the role of a "salty tongue," a Cambodian expression that paints outspokenness in a positive light. But even though the patient's family was in the room when doctors took the time to answer every last question about test results and treatment options, the refugee's family would call Gualtieri hours later to review what doctors had said. ...
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Pricey radiation no better post prostatectomy: study
By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men who get an older and less costly form of radiation after their cancerous prostates are removed fare just as well as men who get a new and expensive type of radiation, according to a new study. "What we demonstrate is that both (therapies) are very safe and effective after prostatectomy, and patients should feel very confident receiving either technology," said Dr. Ronald Chen, the study's senior author from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Conformal radiotherapy (CRT) delivers radiation over a large area to kill cancer cells. ...
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Does prostate cancer treatment help older, sick men?
By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older men with other illnesses may not live long enough to benefit from aggressive prostate cancer treatments, such as prostate removal or radiation, and they'd have to live with their side effects, says a new study. "If you're going to die of a heart attack in five years, what's the point of going through radiation?" asked Dr. David Penson, the study's senior author from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. ...
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Want to Know if You’re Sober Enough to Drive? Don’t Ask an App
Put “alcohol” and “apps” into Google and you’ll get dozens of possible downloads for your smartphone. Many are specifically aimed at helping you track your blood alcohol content (BAC), and each works pretty much the same way: You key in info every time you have a cocktail, and the app then uses that to track your BAC and gauges your fitness to drive. It’s just an app, though, and in many cases these tools don’t know how much you weigh; if you’ve taken medication; or even if you’ve eaten recently or had water—all of which affect your BAC.
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Swine virus confirmed in Iowa, Indiana hog herds
By P.J. Huffstutter (Reuters) - Farms in two of the nation's leading pork producing states have tested positive for the potentially fatal porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), U.S. pork industry veterinarian official said Monday. Three farms in Iowa and one Indiana operation have confirmed cases of the virus, said Dr Lisa Becton, director of swine health information and research for the National Pork Board. The cases in Iowa were located on farms "all across the state, not in one specific area," Becton said. PEDV does not pose a food safety or health risk to humans and the pork is safe eat. ...
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Pfizer halts study of lymphoma drug unlikely to help survival
 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc, which has been on a hot streak with three recent approvals of cancer drugs, stumbled on Monday, saying it was halting a late-stage trial of a drug for aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma after independent monitors found it was not likely to improve survival. Pfizer said it would continue to study the experimental drug, inotuzumab ozogamicin, in other hematologic cancers. ...
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U.S. charges 3 NYU researchers in Chinese bribery case
By Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities brought criminal charges against three New York University researchers on Monday, alleging they conspired to take bribes from Chinese medical and research outfits for details about NYU research into magnetic resonance imaging technology. A criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan charged Yudong Zhu, 44, Xing Yang, 31, and Ye Li, 31, with commercial bribery conspiracy in connection with NYU research financed by the U.S. government. ...
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UK first in EU to get Merck's new Schmallenberg vaccine
LONDON (Reuters) - British farmers will be the first in Europe to get a vaccine against Schmallenberg virus, a new livestock disease that hit the continent in 2011. Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on Tuesday that MSD Animal Health, a unit of Merck & Co, had been issued a license for the new vaccine after an accelerated assessment to make it available this summer. As a result, farmers will be able to vaccinate sheep and cattle before most of them become pregnant, which is important as exposure to the virus can cause damage to foetuses. ...
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Keyboardist Ray Manzarek of The Doors dies at age 74
 By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ray Manzarek, a founding member and keyboardist of 1960s rock group The Doors, died on Monday at a medical clinic in Germany at age 74 following a battle with cancer, the group's manager Tom Vitorino said. Manzarek, who lived in Northern California's Napa Valley wine country for the past decade, had been seeking treatment in Germany for bile duct cancer, Vitorino said. He died in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his wife and brothers. ...
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Healthcare workers set to strike California public hospitals
By Ronnie Cohen SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nearly 13,000 healthcare employees at five University of California medical centers plan to strike on Tuesday in a move that threatens to back up emergency rooms and already has forced the postponement of elective surgeries. ...
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Erupting Alaska volcano spews ash, disrupts air travel
By Yereth Rosen ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - One of Alaska's most active volcanoes, which has been belching ash and spewing lava since last week, has forced regional flight cancellations and dusted some nearby communities with ash, scientists and local officials said on Monday. Pavlof Volcano has sent up ash as high as 22,000 feet, with the cloud blowing eastward and the eruption showing no signs of abating, according to the federal-state Alaska Volcano Observatory. The lava from its 8,261-foot (2,518-metre) peak has also created huge steam clouds on meeting the mountain's snow. ...
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Intercell vaccine gets U.S. pediatric approval
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's Intercell said on Tuesday it has won U.S. regulatory approval for pediatric use of its Ixiaro vaccine to protect against Japanese Encephalitis (JE), a step it had achieved in Europe in February. "For the first time in nearly two years, a licensed vaccine will now be available to vaccinate traveling children and children of forward-deployed military personal in Asia as well against JE," Chief Executive Thomas Lingelbach said in a statement, calling the step a key growth element for the product. (Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by David Cowell)
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Analysis: Some Republicans see new scandal in Sebelius fundraising
 By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the White House already reeling from three major controversies, some Republican lawmakers are zeroing in on what they perceive is another possible scandal tied to President Barack Obama's landmark health reform law just as it nears implementation. ...
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Portland Set to Vote on Fluoride in Water
Residents of Portland, Ore., will vote today on whether to add fluoride to their drinking water — a move hailed by some as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. But critics say a “yes” vote would expose residents to a...
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Sports seem OK for many with heart-zapping device
 WASHINGTON (AP) — New research is challenging medical guidelines that say people with a heart-zapping device in their chests should avoid intense sports like basketball and soccer in favor of golf or bowling.
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Report: NPS hantavirus response followed policy
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Federal investigators probing the hantavirus outbreak blamed for three deaths at Yosemite National Park recommended on Monday that design changes to tent cabins and other privately run lodging first be reviewed by National Park Service officials.
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High-tech tools for STDs
Want to let others know you're STD-free? Need to tell former lovers to get tested? Or just having some strange symptoms? New sites and apps can help. 
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Alicia Keys, women and HIV
Alicia Keys' latest initiative, "Empowered," is a campaign aimed at reaching out specifically to American women about HIV. 
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My son Jonah's 'clock is ticking'
Jill Wood's 4-year-old son has a rare and fatal disease. But she is determined to fight for a cure, saying he might be the first child to walk away. 
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