Month: March 2014

By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) – A socialite whose weight-loss supplement was linked to suspensions of several NFL players in 2008 for banned substances pleaded guilty on Wednesday to drug misbranding. Nikki Haskell and her company, Balanced Health Products Inc, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal district court to a misdemeanor count of misbranding in connection with the sale of a pill called StarCaps, whose label did not disclose the presence of a diuretic called bumetanide. Haskell, who billed herself as the "Diet Queen to the Stars," has been an occasional presence in celebrity social circles, with the New York Post's Page Six gossip column reporting her appearance at events involving Aretha Franklin and Ivanka Trump. She was the chief executive of Balanced Health, which marketed StarCaps as an "all natural diet supplement" containing papaya and garlic.

By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, led by losses in the technology and materials sectors, as geopolitical concerns rose after the United States and the European Union agreed to work together on tougher sanctions on Russia. But the major indexes reversed course in the afternoon as technology stocks turned sharply lower. Among technology stocks, Facebook was one of the biggest decliners a day after the social networking company said it would acquire two-year-old Oculus VR Inc, a maker of virtual-reality glasses for gaming, for $2 billion. The United States and the European Union agreed to work together to prepare possible tougher economic sanctions in response to Russia's behavior in Ukraine.

CHICAGO (AP) — A smartphone app for recovering alcoholics that includes a panic button and sounds an alert when they get too close to taverns helped keep some on the wagon, researchers who developed the tool found.

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – A large international team of scientists has built the clearest picture yet of how human genes are regulated in the vast array of cell types in the body – work that should help researchers target genes linked to disease. The three-year long project, called FANTOM5 and led by the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies in Japan, involved more than 250 scientists across 20 countries and regions. "Humans are complex multicellular organisms composed of at least 400 distinct cell types. This beautiful diversity of cell types allow us to see, think, hear, move and fight infection – yet all of this is encoded in the same genome," said Alistair Forrest, scientific coordinator of FANTOM5.

An Oklahoma judge ruled on Wednesday the state’s secrecy on its lethal injections protocols was unconstitutional, a decision that could delay executions in other states where death row inmates are planning to launch similar challenges. County district court judge Patricia Parrish ruled the state violated due process protections in the U.S. Constitution by not providing the name of the drug supplier, the combination of chemicals and the dosages used in executions. Oklahoma’s attorney general said the office will appeal. Oklahoma and other U.S. states have been struggling to obtain drugs for executions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Americans could get extra time to enroll for taxpayer-subsidized coverage this year under President Barack Obama's health care law. That would let the administration boost sign-ups and aid Democrats under attack over the program's troubles.

A small study that examined brains from children who died found abnormal patterns of cell growth in autistic children. The research bolsters evidence that something before birth might cause autism, at least in some cases.

(Reuters) – Some bottles of Alli, GlaxoSmithKline Plc's weight-loss drug sold over the counter in the United States, have been tampered with, and the Food and Drug Administration was investigating, the company said on Wednesday. Consumers have reported that about 20 bottles bought in stores in seven mostly Southern states contained products other than the drug, GlaxoSmithKline said. The bottles could be unlabeled and the lot numbers might not match the numbers on the carton, GlaxoSmithKline said. Glaxo spokeswoman Deborah Bolding said that so far there have been no reports of serious illness related to the products.

By Gene Emery NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Researchers say they have uncovered key abnormalities in some of the layers of the brains of children with autism, an indication that the foundation for the problem is laid early in fetal development. Using a unique collection of molecular tags applied to the brains after the children had died, they found patches along the convoluted surface of the brain where some usual components of cells were missing. Brain cells were still present in those patches, but they lacked proteins seen in normal brain cells, said Dr. Rich Stoner, coauthor of a paper on the results that appears in the March 27 New England Journal of Medicine. The team used the tags to look for 25 unique markers of healthy cells and of specific genes in the brains of children who had died between the ages of 2 and 15 years.

Italy’s MolMed is close to presenting results from Phase III clinical trials of a new cancer treatment that could represent a turning point for the biotech company, its founder said on Wednesday. The Milan-based company has developed the NGR-hTNF molecule to treat mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos, and expects to announce results of the trials by the end of June, Claudio Bordignon told Reuters. “There is no competitor, there is no drug for the cure of mesothelioma,” Bordignon said, adding that MolMed is likely to seek a partner to produce and market the product. In a note broker Jefferies said it believed NGR to be an attractive asset that could attract partners to fund further development.

A juvenile court judge has given the state of Massachusetts custody of Justina Pelletier until the age of 18.