Health Highlights: July 9, 2012
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
Month: July 2012
Major Medical Groups Back Sweeteners as Diet Aid
Expensive, Drug-Emitting Stents May Be Overused: Study
Health Tip: Help Kids Have an Active Summer
(HealthDay News) — It’s summertime, and the living is easy for kids out of school. But parents should help their children stay active while the weather is hot.
WellPoint to buy Amerigroup for $4.5 billion in Medicaid play
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Health insurer WellPoint Inc will buy rival Amerigroup Corp for $4.46 billion, nearly doubling its Medicaid business in a major bet on the expansion of the U.S. government's health plan for the poor. The companies announced the deal on Monday, just a week and a half after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama's healthcare law, which aims to extend coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Sources familiar with the deal said the high court decision helped serve as a catalyst to negotiations that took place over several months. …
QLT’s workforce cut, CEO quits after shareholder coup
TORONTO (Reuters) – Charting a new course after a boardroom coup, Canadian biotech company QLT Inc outlined plans on Monday to cut 68 percent of its workforce and find a new chief executive. The company’s new board, elected following a proxy battle in June, plans to sell or spin off parts of the company, return $100 million in capital to shareholders and focus on developing a treatment for several eye diseases that can cause blindness. …
FDA unveils safety measures for opioid painkillers
Drugmakers that market powerful painkiller medications will be required to train U.S. doctors, nurses and other health professionals in the safe use of the drugs, which are blamed for thousands of fatal overdoses each year.
Girl Mauled by Dog at Sleepover
Cuba scrambles to fight rare cholera outbreak
Authorities in eastern Cuba are in full prevention mode to contain a rare cholera outbreak amid fears that it may have spread to the capital, distributing chlorine and water purification drops and quarantining hospital patients with diarrhea until they are checked for the disease.
Forest hires search firm, rejects Icahn nominees
(Reuters) – Forest Laboratories Inc said on Monday its board had hired executive search firm Spencer Stuart to find a successor to its 84-year-old chief executive, Howard Solomon, and urged shareholders to reject director nominees put forth by activist investor Carl Icahn. The U.S. drugmaker said its independent directors are leading the search process, which includes the consideration of internal and external candidates. The company said it had a deep management bench, which included David Solomon, who is the son of its long-time CEO and was promoted in November 2010. …
FDA focuses on training to stem painkiller abuse
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Health regulators are hoping more education for doctors and patients can stem the growing tide of prescription painkiller abuse in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration is mandating that all companies that make long-acting or extended-release opioid medicines – including painkillers like oxycodone and methadone – fund training programs for doctors that help them decide when to prescribe such medicines, and how to monitor patients who take them. …
