Month: June 2013

By Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City lawyers tried to convince an appeals court on Tuesday to allow Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ban on large sugary drinks, three months after it was struck down as an illegal overreach of executive power. The law, invalidated a day before it would have taken effect, barred movie theaters, restaurants and other venues from selling sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. Convenience stores and grocers would not have been affected. It was a signature health policy for Bloomberg, who also expanded the city’s ban on indoor smoking. …

By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) – Seattle officials are recommending that Washington state authorize private marijuana clubs and examine allowing home delivery of the drug, as they work out rules for a recreational pot market, according to a letter sent to state regulators. The recommendations sent by the Seattle city attorney with the blessing of the city’s mayor are among the hundreds received by the state’s Liquor Control Board before a Monday deadline for public comment on draft rules issued. …

By Verna Gates BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) – Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday challenging a new Alabama law that tightens restrictions on abortion clinics in the state. The law, signed by Gov. Robert Bentley in April and set to take effect next month, requires every doctor who performs an abortion at a clinic to have staff privileges at a local hospital. Supporters of the law argue it is intended to make abortions safer and improve patient care. But critics say the law will unnecessarily restrict a woman’s right under the U.S. …

By Jonathan Stempel and Jessica Wohl (Reuters) – Walgreen Co, the largest U.S. drugstore chain, has agreed to pay $80 million in civil penalties to resolve allegations that it violated federal rules governing the distribution of prescription painkillers. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday said the settlement is the largest in its history. The DEA accused Walgreen of committing an "unprecedented" number of record-keeping and dispensing violations of the Controlled Substances Act. …

LONDON (Reuters) – British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has fired its head of research and development in China after discovering that a study by some of its Chinese scientists contained misrepresentation of data. A company spokesman said on Tuesday that Jiangwu Zang had been dismissed and three other individuals had been placed on administrative leave, while a further employee had resigned. The decision follows an investigation into concerns about a scientific paper published in the journal Nature Medicine in 2010 involving pre-clinical research into multiple sclerosis. …

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is recovering with the help of physical rehabilitation in France more than a month after he was rushed to hospital there suffering from a stroke, the presidency said on Tuesday. Bouteflika has been neither heard nor seen in public since he was taken in for treatment in Paris on April 27, raising widespread speculation about his state of health. …

By Lisa Maria Garza DALLAS (Reuters) – A Texas hospital placed an oncologist on leave after she was charged with spiking her lover’s coffee with a sweet-tasting chemical poison, a hospital spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Ana Maria Gonzalez-Angulo, a breast cancer doctor at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, was charged May 29 with aggravated assault of Dr. George Blumenschein, another cancer specialist at the institution. The two were in “a casual sexual relationship,” according to a criminal complaint. …

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Pregnant women who are overweight or obese are more likely to give birth prematurely, according to a new study from Sweden. Researchers found that link was strongest for babies born the earliest – between 22 and 27 weeks – and therefore most at risk of complications. “This study suggests that there is a direct association between maternal overweight and obesity during pregnancy and the risk of preterm birth,” said Dr. Muktar Aliyu, who has studied pregnancy risks at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. …

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A one-hour educational session followed by personalized feedback helped pediatricians more closely align their antibiotic prescribing habits with national guidelines, in a new study. Researchers found fewer doctors in the program prescribed a drug that could increase the risk of antibiotic resistance for children with pneumonia or a sinus infection, compared to those who received no extra guidance. “We tried to keep it relatively simple,” said Dr. Jeffery Gerber, who led the new study at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. …

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Royalty Pharma, pursuing a hostile $8 billion takeover of Irish drugmaker Elan Corp Plc, moved on Tuesday to make sure it is not blocked by a potential $200 million share buyback and drug spinoff at the target company. Elan, which has been resisting the advances of the U.S. investment firm for more than three months, rejected a sweetened takeover offer on Monday and said for the first time that it was assessing inquiries from other parties. Royalty’s new bid of $13 cash per share, plus an extra $2. …

By Carey Gillam (Reuters) – Pigs fed a diet of only genetically modified grain showed markedly higher stomach inflammation than pigs who dined on conventional feed, according to a new study by a team of Australian scientists and U.S. researchers. The study adds to an intensifying public debate over the impact of genetically modified crops, which are widely used by U.S. and Latin American farmers and in many other countries around the world. …

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – After years on the rise, the number of CT scans performed on kids every year seems to have started falling, according to a new study. However, researchers found that U.S. children still have about 4 million head, chest, stomach or spine CT tests every year – which they believe will go on to cause close to 5,000 radiation-related cancers. Many of those cancers could be avoided, either with lower-dose scans or no scans at all when they’re not needed, according to Diana Miglioretti and her colleagues. …