Top insulin maker Novo caught up in China’s widening drug probes

By Mette Fraende and Ben Hirschler COPENHAGEN/LONDON (Reuters) – Chinese authorities have visited a site operated by Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S , the world’s biggest maker of insulin, in the latest sign of a widening investigation into Western drugmakers. H. Lundbeck A/S , a smaller Danish drugs firm, also said its unit in Beijing had been visited by the authorities, while a Chinese newspaper reported an allegation from an unnamed person that French firm Sanofi SA had paid around 1.7 million yuan ($276,200) in bribes to hundreds of doctors in China in 2007. …

GSK plugs into bioelectronics with $50 million venture fund

A GlaxoSmithKline logo is seen outside one of its buildings in west London, ahead of company resultsLONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline raised its bet on using electrical signals in the body to target diseases on Thursday with the launch of a $50 million strategic venture capital fund. Britain's biggest drugmaker hopes to have the first medicine that effectively speaks the electrical "language" of the body ready for approval by the end of this decade. GSK said the new fund's first investment would be in SetPoint Medical, a California company working on implantable devices to treat inflammatory diseases. …

Global food prices fall about 2 pct in July: FAO

To match interview NAKUMATT/ROME (Reuters) – Global food prices fell nearly 2 percent in July compared to the previous month, driven mainly by lower prices for grains, soy and palm oil, the United Nations' food agency said on Thursday. The Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) price index, which measures monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, fell in July for a third month running to 205.9 points compared to 210.1 points in June, reaching its lowest level since June 2012.

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe rejects West’s criticism of his re-election

(Blank Headline Received)By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday defiantly rejected Western criticism of his disputed re-election and vowed to press ahead with nationalist economic policies transferring majority stakes in foreign-owned firms to blacks. In his first public comments since he was declared winner of a July 31 election that his main rival Morgan Tsvangirai rejects as fraudulent, Mugabe, Africa's oldest leader at 89, said his ZANU-PF party's victory had "dealt the enemy a blow". …

Tyson Foods to suspend buying cattle fed Zilmax additive

By Theopolis Waters CHICAGO (Reuters) – Tyson Foods Inc, the largest U.S. meat processor, said it would suspend purchases of cattle fed the growth enhancer Zilmax, saying it was worried about cases of cattle with difficulty walking although it did not know the specific cause of problem. Rumors of Tyson’s action sparked a sharp rally in Chicago Mercantile Exchange cattle futures on Wednesday. Removing Zilmax from feed rations would bring down the weight of cattle, resulting in less available beef and likely drive up beef prices. …

New letter from American held in North Korea points to poorer health

Myunghee Bae holds a letter sent to her from prison by her son, Kenneth Bae, at her home in LynnwoodBy Eric M. Johnson LYNNWOOD, Washington (Reuters) – Kenneth Bae, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in North Korea for crimes against the state, made a fresh appeal to the U.S. government for help and chronicled his declining health in a letter that reached his family on Wednesday, his sister said. Bae was sentenced in early May to 15 years of hard labor after North Korea's Supreme Court convicted him of state subversion, saying the 45-year-old Christian missionary had used his tourism business to form groups to overthrow the government. …

George W. Bush ‘doing great’ day after surgery for blocked artery

Former U.S. president George W. Bush watches before the start of the MLB American between the Rangers and White Sox in Arlington, Texas in this file photoBy Marice Richter DALLAS (Reuters) – Former President George W. Bush was recovering at his home in Dallas on Wednesday, a day after undergoing surgery for a blocked artery, a Bush spokesman said. Bush, 67, is "doing great," his spokesman Freddy Ford said, after a stent, a wire mesh coil used to prop open arteries, was placed in the former president's heart at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas on Tuesday. The blockage was discovered on Monday during Bush's annual physical at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas. His doctors recommended the stent and Bush agreed to the procedure, Ford said. …

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