Month: March 2014

By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended up on Friday but off their session highs as a late afternoon selloff in the biotechnology sector weighed on the overall market. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell nearly 3 percent for the week, marking its worst week since October 2012. The three major U.S. stock indexes had been significantly higher in most of the morning and early afternoon trade following comments from China's Premier Li Keqiang indicating that the country's government was ready to take steps to support its slowing economy. But a 2.8 percent drop in the Nasdaq biotechnology index led the major indexes to session lows.

OTTAWA/WINNIPEG (Reuters) – The Canadian government will remove the 25-percent foreign investment cap on medical isotope provider Nordion Inc in cases that are deemed to be of net benefit to Canada, under legislation introduced on Friday. "The foreign ownership restrictions with respect to the company were put in place when it was privatized in the early 1990s, and do not serve an ongoing purpose," said Melissa Lantsman, spokeswoman for Finance Minister Joe Oliver. "The removal of the foreign ownership restrictions will allow Nordion to access more investment capital, enabling it to better grow and create jobs, but is conditional on approval of a transaction under the Investment Canada Act." Nordion shares were down slightly in Toronto and New York in late Friday trading.

A Los Angeles couple was sentenced to three years in jail in Qatar on Thursday for causing the death of their adopted African-born daughter, who was found to have died of starvation, in a case that has raised concern in Washington. Matthew and Grace Huang were arrested in January last year after their 8-year-old daughter, Gloria, died unexpectedly.

Love can sometimes break a heart but marriage seems to do it a lot of good. A study of more than 3.5 million Americans finds that married people are less likely than singles, divorced or widowed folks to suffer any type of heart or blood vessel problem.

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Health officials in the West African nation of Guinea say they’re now treating eight cases of Ebola in the capital.

(Reuters) – Moving to offset shortages of a common saline used in hospitals and dialysis centers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that it will temporarily allow Fresenius Kabi USA LLC to distribute normal saline from its manufacturing facility in Norway. The FDA said the initial shipments would help but not resolve shortages of 0.9 percent sodium chloride injection, also known as normal saline. The FDA said it is continuing to work with Baxter Healthcare Corp, B.Braun Medical Inc. and Hospira Inc to restore their supplies to hospitals and health clinics.

A Pittsburgh hospital plans to chill patients to buy them time.

By C.E. Huggins NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Marijuana smokers' behavior is more important than the potency of their pot or how much of the psychoactive ingredient THC they take in for predicting who will become dependent, according to a small new study. Researchers have debated whether smokers of high-potency cannabis varieties are at greater risk of addiction because they get more THC, or if they compensate for the pot's strength by using or inhaling less of it. But it's their style of pot smoking that predicted who was most likely to become dependent. Most previous research into cannabis dependence has looked mainly at how frequently a person uses cannabis, Van der Pol and her team note in the journal Addiction.

Brooklyn man said he was escorted out by police for contraband food.

By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Officials in Massachusetts have blocked sales of Zogenix's controversial but U.S.-approved painkiller Zohydro, prompting the drugmaker to criticize what it called an "unprecedented action." The state's ban "only serves to unfairly restrict patient access," the company said in a statement late Thursday. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced the Zohydro ban in a speech on Thursday, formally declaring a public health emergency stemming from the abuse of opioids in the New England state. Bradley Galer, chief medical officer of Zogenix, said Massachusetts officials are misguided about Zohydro's potency and dosage, and noted that other painkillers without abuse-resistant technologies are already on the U.S. market. The drug has since come under further scrutiny from members of Congress, dozens of state attorney generals, medical groups and drug treatment experts seeking to block the drug even as the FDA's top official has defended its action.