Month: February 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — Chick-fil-A said Tuesday it plans to serve only chicken raised without antibiotics within the next five years.

By Eric Kelsey and Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Veteran news anchor Tom Brokaw, the face of "NBC Nightly News" for more than two decades, has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting blood cells in the bone marrow, but is hopeful about the outcome of his treatment, the network said on Tuesday. Brokaw, 74, stepped down as anchor in December 2004 but has remained with the network as a special correspondent, currently covering the Winter Olympics coverage in Sochi, and has continued to work on NBC projects during his treatment, NBC News said in a statement. It said Brokaw and his physicians were "very encouraged with the progress he is making." In his own statement accompanying the network announcement, Brokaw said: "With the exceptional support of my family, medical team and friends, I am very optimistic about the future and look forward to continuing my life, my work and adventures still to come." He added, "I remain the luckiest guy I know." A South Dakota native who joined NBC in 1966, Brokaw served as White House correspondent during the Watergate scandal of the Richard Nixon administration and hosted NBC's "Today" show from 1976 until 1982.

The Obama administration may have pushed the bounds of its legal authority by delaying the healthcare law requirement that certain employers provide coverage to full-time workers, but the move will be tough to challenge in court, according to legal experts. The so-called employer mandate was originally supposed to take effect in January under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. But in the middle of last year, the administration granted a one-year delay to January 2015. Then, on Monday, the administration announced that medium-size businesses, with 50 to 99 full-time workers, would not have to comply with the requirement until 2016.

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) – Doctors should use cholesterol-lowering statin drugs much more widely to prevent heart attacks and strokes, according to Britain’s healthcare cost-effectiveness watchdog. In a major revision to 2008 guidelines, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends the threshold for starting on statins should be halved from a 20 percent risk of developing cardiovascular disease over 10 years to a 10 percent risk. An estimated 7 million people in Britain already take statins at an annual cost of around 450 million pounds ($738 million), and reducing the benchmark for treatment would increase that number significantly. But increased use is viewed as a cost-effective strategy, since cardiovascular disease in England alone cost the state-run National Health Service (NHS) some 7.88 billion pounds in 2010.

By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hit back on Tuesday at critics who have charged it with gender bias for rejecting a drug for low female libido from Sprout Pharmaceuticals. Women’s groups, who have lobbied heavily for the drug’s approval, pounced after the FDA denied an appeal to approve the product, a once-a-day treatment for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), accusing the agency of bias. “When it comes to approving drugs for male sexual dysfunction, the FDA says yes with more limited research and serious side effects, but when it comes to women, their go-slow tactics are preventing us from having access to a treatment option where we make the decision in consultation with our healthcare provider,” said Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, in a statement. The FDA rejected the charge, saying in an email that it “engaged in a scientific process in which we evaluated whether the drug’s benefits outweigh its risk.” The FDA declined to approve the drug, flibanserin, last year saying its effects were “modest” and did not outweigh side effects such as dizziness, nausea and fatigue.

By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday he has asked France to consider sending more troops to the Central African Republic because the international response to the crisis "does not yet match the gravity of the situation." Ban said violence between Christians and Muslims continued to worsen and he was gravely concerned that the violence in the landlocked former French colony could spiral into a genocide. "We must do more to prevent more atrocities, protect civilians, restore law and order, provide humanitarian assistance and hold the country together." "The international response must be robust with a credible deployment of force … It must be swift if we are to prevent the worst-case scenario," said Ban, who is due to report to the United Nations Security Council in March on options for transforming the current African Union peacekeeping force into a U.N. operation. France sent 1,600 troops to the Central African Republic in December to assist some 5,000 African Union peacekeepers, while the European Union has also agreed to send around 500 troops.

By Bill Berkrot NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Gilead Sciences Inc declined to project 2014 revenue for its high-profile new hepatitis C drug last week, its shares fell nearly 7 percent over the next two days. On Tuesday, Gilead President and Chief Operating Officer John Milligan again declined to predict sales of the medicine that won U.S. marketing approval in December.