Month: September 2013

By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top labor leaders left the White House on Friday after an hour-long meeting with President Barack Obama, still looking for a way to address concerns that "Obamacare" will hurt their members' healthcare plans. The dispute with unions – traditional allies of Democrats – as the Obama administration begins to roll out Obama's signature healthcare reforms is providing political ammunition for Republicans who want to defund or repeal the law. …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama's senior adviser, Dan Pfeiffer, was hospitalized twice last week with what doctors determined was high blood pressure, a White House official said on Friday. Pfeiffer, 37, one of Obama's original inner circle when he ran for president in 2008, has received treatment and is back at work in the White House, where his blood pressure is being monitored. "We are happy and relieved to have Dan back at work full time. …

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal U.S. judge issued a temporary injunction against Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd on Friday, preventing the South Korean drugmaker from launching a close relative of AstraZeneca Plc’s Nexium stomach-acid drug in the United States. Judge Timothy Dyk of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit approved AstraZeneca’s request for the injunction on Friday. He ordered Hanmi to respond within a week and AstraZeneca to reply no later than September 24. …

Wireless signals create a 3-D map of a room and can monitor any unusual movement, such as a fall or unusual period of quiescence. Larry Greenemeier reports.

By Natalie Huet and Ben Hirschler PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) – Repurchasing L'Oreal's 9 percent stake in Sanofi might make sense for the French drugmaker if the $12 billion holding is put up for sale, Sanofi's chief executive said on Friday. Chris Viehbacher told an investor conference the group had the resources to do "opportunistic" share buybacks, as well as making bolt-on acquisitions and potentially increasing its stake in U.S. biotech firm Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Shares in Regeneron jumped more than 5 percent to an all-time high of $288. …

By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) – A fire killed 37 people in a Russian psychiatric hospital on Friday, the second deadly blaze at such a facility this year, heightening concerns about Russia’s treatment of the mentally ill and other vulnerable wards of the state. Fires have frequently claimed high tolls among residents of hospitals, schools and other state institutions over the past decade, raising questions about safety standards. …