| WASHINGTON (AP) -- A majority of federal health advisers say a best-selling antidepressant from Eli Lilly & Co. appears effective in treating back pain, but not arthritis.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Shire PLC said Tuesday it will pull a blood-pressure drug off the market following warnings from federal regulators who said the drug has not been proven effective.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health regulators are warning doctors and patients that an anti-seizure drug from GlaxoSmithKline PLC can cause rare inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Aggressive, drug-resistant staph infections caught in hospitals or from medical treatment are becoming scarcer, another sign of progress in a prevention effort that has become a national public health priority.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Doctors can't tell if Leif Utoft Bollesen's mild memory loss will remain an annoyance or worsen, but experimental checks of the Minnesota man's aging brain may offer clues.
VIENNA (AP) -- Rich countries must give more for the fight against AIDS or risk jeopardizing progress in battling the disease, participants at an international conference urged Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health officials are barring new patients from enrolling in a safety study of GlaxoSmithKline's controversial diabetes pill Avandia, a week after a panel of experts ruled that the drug increases heart risks.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health advisers said unanimously Tuesday that a follow-up study of the Roche drug Avastin failed to show meaningful benefits for breast cancer patients.
(Associated Press) -- For the first time, a vaginal gel has proved capable of blocking the AIDS virus: It cut in half a woman's chances of getting HIV from an infected partner in a study in South Africa. Scientists called it a breakthrough in the long quest for a tool to help women whose partners won't use condoms.
(Associated Press) -- Provocative new research shows that treating people with the AIDS virus can provide a powerful bonus: It cuts the risk that they will infect others.
VIENNA (AP) -- World leaders lack the political will to ensure that everyone infected with HIV and AIDS gets treatment, the head of a meeting dedicated to the disease said Sunday.
VIENNA (AP) -- The number of people taking crucial AIDS drugs climbed by a record 1.2 million last year to 5.2 million overall, the World Health Organization said Monday -- but Bill Clinton says that's still not nearly enough.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Dr. Mary Newport sees the symptoms more and more in the babies she treats: oddly stiff limbs, severe tremors, vomiting, diarrhea, insomnia, crying that never stops.
GAITHERSBURG, MD. (AP) -- A panel of federal health experts dealt a surprising setback Thursday to a highly anticipated anti-obesity pill from Vivus Inc., saying the drug's side effects outweigh its ability to help patients lose weight.
(The New York Times News Service) -- A national report revealed Thursday that more people than ever need treatment for addiction to pain pills. Admissions for therapy more than quadrupled in the last decade across the U.S., a trend mirrored in Florida.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health scientists said Friday that follow-up studies of a Roche breast cancer drug show it failed to slow tumor growth or extend patient lives, opening the door for a potential withdrawal in that indication.
ATLANTA (AP) -- An experimental diet pill helped about half the people who tried it lose some weight and keep it off a year later, without the heart problems that some earlier drugs caused, a study found.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A majority of federal health experts voted Wednesday to keep the controversial diabetes pill Avandia on the market despite evidence that it increases the risk of heart attack.
(Associated Press) -- Scientists are reporting advances in detecting and predicting Alzheimer's disease at a conference in Honolulu this week, plus more proof that getting enough exercise and vitamin D may lower your risk.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dieters, doctors and investors get their first extensive look at the first of a trio of new weight loss drugs this week. The hope is that the new drugs can succeed where many others have failed: delivering significant weight loss without risky side effects.
LONDON (AP) -- The European agency that evaluates medicine said Friday it will review the safety of the diabetes drug Avandia following research suggesting it is linked to a higher risk of heart problems, strokes and deaths in older adults.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A review by federal health scientists reinforces potential ties between the diabetes pill Avandia and heart attack and death, opening the door for government action, including a possible withdrawal of the once blockbuster drug.
WASHINGTON (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- US scientists have discovered the most effective HIV antibodies to date which can be used to find a vaccine for the virus, Science reported Thursday.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The health care overhaul passed earlier this year will help many uninsured get coverage starting in 2014. But until then, Americans who lose employer coverage may find buying insurance on their own unaffordable.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- An experimental drug designed to attack breast cancer cells caused by a particular genetic mutation appears to show some promise in arresting the growth of tumours, researchers say.
(The New York Times News Service) -- The prescription painkiller oxycodone killed more Floridians than ever last year, and nowhere was that more evident than Pinellas and Pasco counties.
(Associated Press) -- The arthritis pill Vioxx was withdrawn but menopause hormones were not, even though both were tied to heart risks. A multiple sclerosis medicine was pulled and later allowed back on.
ATLANTA (AP) -- About a quarter of the swine flu vaccine produced for the U.S. public has expired -- meaning that a whopping 40 million doses worth about $260 million is being written off as trash.
HONG KONG (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- Hong Kong researchers have developed a treatment for people infected by swine flu using the antibodies from blood plasma from patients who recovered from the disease, a media report said Thursday.
(Associated Press) -- When a drug's risks exceed its benefits, the federal Food and Drug Administration may ask or order a company to withdraw it from the market, or a company may do so on its own. Here are some drugs withdrawn in recent years.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Should healthy people with low cholesterol take a pill to lower their cholesterol even more in hopes of preventing heart problems? The question is dividing heart doctors and confusing patients.
(USA TODAY) -- Half of breast cancer patients stop taking key medications ahead of schedule, a decision that can increase their risk of relapse and death, a new study shows.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- A study has found that giving a certain antibiotic to elderly patients already taking commonly prescribed cardiovascular drugs can be dangerous.
(Associated Press) -- The doctors finally let Rosaria Vandenberg go home.
CHICAGO (AP) -- A new study led by a federal drug safety expert ties the controversial diabetes drug Avandia to a higher risk of heart problems, strokes and deaths in older adults, and says it is more dangerous than a rival drug, Actos.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- A two-year effort to contain and eliminate a drug-resistant strain of falciparum malaria near the Cambodian-Thai border has shown signs of success, the government said Friday.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization on Friday issued its first-ever guidance on how to use more than 240 essential medicines for children under 13.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Thousands of South African protesters marched on the U.S. consulate Thursday to demand the U.S. increase its AIDS funding for Africa, weeks after U.S. officials said their biggest AIDS fund would not substantially rise.
ATLANTA (AP) -- For the first time, abuse of painkillers and other medication is sending as many people to the emergency room as the use of illegal drugs.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In an unusual step, a dozen competing drug companies have agreed to share data on thousands of Alzheimer's patients in hopes that the extra information will spark new ideas for treatments.
LONDON (AP) -- Britain's health watchdog on Thursday recommended against buying a breast cancer drug for patients with advanced disease.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators have warned Pfizer for failing to promptly report complaints with its drugs that may have involved serious injury.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Doctors reported gains against nearly every form of cancer at a conference that ended this week. Yet when Will Thomas heard about an advance against prostate cancer, he wanted to know just one thing: "Is it a cure?"
LONDON (Canadian Press) -- Officials urged Bristol-Myers Squibb not to shut down a plant in France which makes AIDS drugs, saying the move will jeopardize the lives of thousands of babies.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- "Why did they cut you?" The shocking question came from a respected spine surgeon tracked down by Keith Swenson, who was still in severe pain after an earlier back operation.
GENEVA (AP) -- The head of the World Health Organization said Tuesday that her decisions about swine flu were not influenced by advisers' links to pharmaceutical companies, which were pointed out in a critical journal article this month.
(Associated Press) -- Back pain can be one of the most debilitating kinds of pain, but most people get better with time.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More medical care won't necessarily make you healthier -- it may make you sicker. It's an idea that technology-loving Americans find hard to believe.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Researchers have scored the first big win against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. An experimental drug significantly improved survival in a major study of people with very advanced disease.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A new report shows one in five high school students have taken a prescription drug that they didn't get from a doctor.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The pill is still the No. 1 contraceptive for American women, but it's even more popular in other countries, according to the first government report comparing nations.
GENEVA (AP) -- Swiss drug maker Novartis AG said Thursday it won't ask regulators for permission to market a new ovarian cancer drug after a late-stage trial proved disappointing.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health regulators are investigating hundreds of consumer complaints involving children's medicines recalled by Johnson & Johnson last month, according to a congressional memo.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Half of the 70 million Americans with high blood pressure are keeping it under control by taking medication, meeting a government goal set a decade ago and reducing their risk of life-threatening health problems, a study suggests.
(The New York Times News Service) -- With prescription drug abuse and deaths making headlines all over the state, the public outcry for action is louder than ever.
NEWTON, Mass. (AP) -- Federal regulators have accepted an application for a depression drug marketed by Clinical Data Inc., the company said Monday.
TAMPA (The New York Times News Service) -- Dr. Amanda Smith is a specialist in treating Alzheimer's disease, so she's accustomed to desperate families grasping at hope as they watch their loved ones disappear into dementia.
HOUSTON (The New York Times News Service) -- Scientists hold in their hands a powerful therapy for many diseases.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Could a once-a-month alcoholism shot keep some of the highest-risk heroin addicts from relapse? A drug that wakes up narcoleptics treat cocaine addiction? An old antidepressant fight methamphetamine?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration said Friday it's offering $1 billion in seed money to small research firms in the hunt for promising medical breakthroughs.
BERLIN (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- U.S. cyclist Floyd Landis has admitted to doping and said many of his top competitors, including seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, also used banned performance-enhancing drugs, according to media reports Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Try after try to make vaginal creams that could repel the AIDS virus have failed. Now researchers are testing if a drug used to treat HIV infection finally might give women a tool to prevent it - by infusing the medicine into vaginal gels and contraceptive-style rings.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The number of children hospitalized with dangerous drug-resistant staph infections surged 10-fold in recent years, a study found.
CRYSTAL BEACH (The New York Times News Service) -- For almost four years, Lynn Locascio tried to convince herself that her son didn't have a drug problem.
LONDON (AP) -- The next time Stephen Quake is prescribed a drug, he says he won't worry about having a bad reaction. The Stanford University professor will simply consult his genome to see if there are any warning signs in his DNA.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A first-of-a-kind prostate cancer treatment that uses the body's immune system to fight the disease received federal approval Thursday, offering an important alternative to more intensive treatments like chemotherapy.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- Diabetics with impaired kidneys should avoid taking high doses of certain B vitamins because the supplements may do serious harm, researchers say.
LIVERPOOL, England (AP) -- Health experts are holding up a perhaps unlikely country as a model for fighting AIDS in drug users: Iran.
MUMBAI, India (AP) -- It took two years of secret suffering and gut-wrenching diarrhea to make Lumkile Sizila face the fact that he had HIV.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Federal health regulators are taking steps to improve the design and safety of drug pumps.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The big white pill was brought to her in an earthenware chalice. She'd already held hands with her two therapists and expressed her wishes for what it would help her do.
ROME (AP) -- The Vatican will finance new research into the potential use of adult stem cells in the treatment of intestinal and possibly other diseases, officials announced Friday.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Quick treatment with flu medicine saved the lives of many pregnant women who were stricken by swine flu last year, according to the most complete analysis of deaths among expectant mothers.
(Associated Press) -- No more letting industry help pay for developing medical guidelines. Restrictions on consulting deals. And no more pens with drug company names or other swag at conferences.
(Associated Press) -- Older women at higher risk for breast cancer now have two good drug options for preventing the disease, but they will have to weigh the trade-offs, a major study shows.
LONDON (AP) -- Men with prostate cancer being treated with hormone therapy have a slightly higher risk of developing a blood clot, new research says.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Having a bad reaction to penicillin as a child doesn't guarantee you're still allergic decades later. And if the oncologist says you have to switch chemotherapies because of an allergic reaction, well, maybe not.
CHICAGO (AP) -- A nurse may soon be your doctor.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on fat-melting injections used in spas across the U.S., saying the drugs have not been proven safe or effective.
LONDON (AP) -- Lithium doesn't help patients with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, contrary to previous study results, new research says.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- U.S. scientists are reporting the first case of resistance of the H1N1 flu virus to the first new flu drug to hit the market in about a decade.
(Associated Press) -- A new study gives reassuring news about the safety of Fosamax and Reclast, bone-building drugs taken by millions of American women. It found that long-term use does not significantly raise the risk of a rare type of fracture near the hip.
CHICAGO (AP) -- American psychiatrists need to break away from a "culture of influence" created by their financial dealings with the drug industry, the head of the National Institute of Mental Health said in a leading medical journal.
LONDON (AP) -- Nobel Prize-winning pharmacologist James Black, whose breakthrough beta-blocker drugs help treat millions of heart patients and save thousands of lives, has died at age 85, his former university said Monday.
TALLAHASSEE (The New York Times News Service) -- A year after a 7-year-old boy heavily medicated on powerful psychiatric drugs hanged himself in his Margate foster home, lawmakers are pushing to reform state medical requirements for foster children.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The $75 million heist at a pharmaceutical warehouse in Connecticut this week was just the most audacious example of a growing phenomenon: Thieves are stealing large quantities of prescription drugs for resale on the black market.
(USA TODAY) -- The cost of cancer treatment is "skyrocketing" -- both for individual patients and the nation, a new analysis shows.
ATLANTA (USA TODAY) -- Doctors who used a genetic test to personalize treatment with warfarin, the world's most widely prescribed blood thinner, cut their patients' hospitalization rates by almost a third, researchers said Tuesday.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Doctors are reporting an exciting win for gene testing and personalized medicine: Checking patients' DNA before starting them on a popular blood thinner helps get the tricky dose right and keep them out of the hospital.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A prominent cardiologist accused leading heart organizations of being too cozy with industry and allowing those ties to influence its policies and education programs for doctors.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Key results from a landmark federal study are in, and the results are disappointing for diabetics: Adding drugs to drive blood pressure and blood-fats lower than current targets did not prevent heart problems, and in some cases caused harmful side effects.
ATLANTA (USA TODAY) -- A drug taken for decades by millions of people with type 2 diabetes to prevent heart attacks, strokes and deaths offered no benefit in a broad group of patients, a study released Sunday shows.
LONDON (AP) -- Women who took the birth control pill beginning in the late 1960s lived longer than those never on the pill, a new study says.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attention is shifting to the world's five leading flu vaccine makers: How fast are they really producing swine flu vaccine, and just how do they plan to test that it works?
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