Month: February 2014

By Sumeet Chatterjee MUMBAI (Reuters) – Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has been hit by more regulatory scrutiny sparked by a U.S. ban on the bulk of its drugs, in a backlash that could bump up compliance costs and erode profitability among some Indian makers of generic drugs. India's biggest drugmaker by revenue, like rival Wockhardt Ltd, has had factories stopped from sending drugs and ingredients to its biggest market because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the plants fell short of "good manufacturing practices".

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline has predicted a pick-up in sales growth to around 2 percent this year as productivity in its drug research labs improves and pressure on sales in China moderates following a damaging bribery scandal. Britain's biggest drugmaker also said on Wednesday that it would stay market leader in the respiratory medicine market – a category it has dominated since the launch of Ventolin in 1969 – despite generic threats to its top-selling Advair drug. Chief Executive Andrew Witty said the expected improvement in 2014 reflected the roll-out of new products, which would offset further potential competition from generics to older products such as the heart drug Lovaza. The Stoxx Europe 600 healthcare sector index was up 0.6 percent.

While the flurries are fun for some, an estimated 14 percent of Americans battle the winter blues. And almost half of those people (more women than men) have full-on seasonal affective disorder or SAD – a form of depression more common in the colder months.        

WASHINGTON (AP) — Uninsured Americans are still procrastinating about President Barack Obama's health care law. With fewer than 60 days left to enroll, can the administration find the millions of customers needed to sustain new insurance markets?

Why we are different – Are you fed up with yoyo dieting and losing weight … How many times have you reached for food, citing boredom, loneliness, …

In a strange turn of life imitating art–the art in this case being the 2000 movie Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks–a fisherman who went missing just over a year ago turned up on the shores of the Marshall Islands. His identity hasn’t been confirmed yet, but authorities in the Marshall Islands believe Jose Salvador Alvarenga was adrift at sea for 13 months after setting off from the Mexican village of Chiapas in late 2012.

JPMorgan and Sterne Agee cut the target price of the stock – JPMorgan to $5 from $6 and Sterne Agee to $3 from $9. Shares of Yum Brands Inc rose 8.9 percent to $72.06 after the KFC parent reaffirmed its 2014 profit outlook and said a resurgent bird flu in China had not hurt national sales in its top market.