Month: March 2014

One in 68 kids has autism, according to new study that suggests the developmental disorder is on the rise. The sobering new stat, based on 2010 data released today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, represents a 29 percent increase in autism…

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – An international team of scientists has built a modified yeast chromosome from scratch, the latest step in the quest to make the world’s first synthetic yeast genome, an advance that would lead to new strains of the organism to help produce industrial chemicals, medicines and biofuels. Instead of just copying nature, the team did extensive tinkering with their chromosome, deleting unwanted genes here and there. It then successfully incorporated the designer chromosome into living yeast cells, endowing them with new capabilities not found in naturally occurring yeast. “It is the most extensively altered chromosome ever built,” said Jef Boeke of New York University’s Langone Medical Center, who led the effort.

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) – Healthcare agency NICE, which determines the use of treatments in the state-run health service, may be more likely to say ‘yes’ to new drugs under proposals that enable it to take a broader view of the value they offer. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), will in future look at the “wider societal impact” of therapies – whether they enable a patient to go back to work faster, for example, for the wider benefit of society – as well as their cost-effectiveness on more limited clinical grounds. But campaigners said the new proposals risked jeopardising access to some expensive cancer drugs and could discriminate against old people who contributed less to society, and against people nearing death, since it would do away with current special provisions for end-of-life care. Chief Executive Andrew Dillon told Reuters that wider overall uptake of new drugs would depend on pharmaceutical manufacturers keeping a tight rein on prices.

A few U.S. states whose newly created Obamacare insurance exchanges were stalled by technology failures may join the federal government's HealthCare.gov marketplace for next year, while only two states that relied on the administration plan to go it alone. Exchange officials in Oregon, Maryland and Massachusetts are weighing whether to enlist new private technology contractors or to turn to the federal government after faulty exchanges slowed enrollment in their states to the lowest rates in the country. The reshuffle would mean the federal government would continue to remain responsible for enrolling millions of people in coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare law in most of the country next year, a far cry from its goal of independent marketplaces in all 50 states. Republicans have sought to defund it, even shutting down the government last year in an attempt to do so.

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) – A U.N. human rights watchdog called on the Obama administration on Thursday to limit its use of drones targeting suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants and to curb U.S. surveillance activities at home and abroad. U.S. drone strikes have led to excessive civilian casualties and unrestricted data collection has eroded the right to privacy, the U.N. Human Rights Committee said in its first report on Washington’s rights record since 2006. “A lot has to do with lack of transparency and oversight,” Swiss lawyer Walter Kaelin, who is among the panel’s 18 independent experts, told a news briefing where the findings were issued. Referring to surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), Kaelin said: “What we are calling for is that if surveillance is undertaken, it has to be done in line with principles of legality, that there is the need for very clear detailed regulation containing safeguards for those under direct surveillance.

Merck & Co Inc appointed Baxter International Inc executive Robert Davis as chief financial officer, as it looks to cut costs and focus on drugs that are more likely to be approved by regulators. Merck – struggling with slowing sales, delays in new drug approvals and failures of experimental drugs – said in October it would cut 8,500 jobs and chop annual operating costs by $2.5 billion. “The main thing for Davis to focus on is trying to make Merck’s structure more flexible so that it can move more quickly to areas that have good returns,” Morningstar analyst Damien Conover said.