Month: March 2014

(Reuters) – Curis Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed it to resume testing of its experimental cancer drug, lifting a November order halting enrolment in an early-stage trial. Enrolment for the study was halted after the death of a patient with advanced breast cancer, who experienced acute liver failure about a month after the drug, codenamed CUDC-427, was discontinued. The drug is designed to neutralize major inhibitors of apoptosis or programmed cell death – a process that ensures defective, damaged or superfluous cells are eliminated. Inhibition of apoptosis helps cancer cells persist and grow.

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline plans to invest up to 130 million pounds ($216 million) in Africa over the next five years as chronic diseases become more common among the continent’s swelling urban middle classes. The decision reflects the draw for the pharmaceutical industry of the region’s rapid economic growth and rising demand for treatments for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like heart and lung disorders, diabetes and cancer. France’s Sanofi has also highlighted Africa as a promising market. Sub-Saharan Africa currently accounts for only around 500 million pounds of GSK’s annual sales, which totalled 26.5 billion pounds in 2013, but the group sees potential for much more as African economies grow.

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up preliminary appeals brought by Roman Catholic groups that want an exemption from part of President Barack Obama's healthcare law requiring employers to provide insurance that covers contraception. The cases were brought by a series of Roman Catholic-affiliated nonprofit groups based in Washington, D.C., including Catholic University. The legal issue is different from one involving for-profit companies that also object on religious grounds to the so-called contraception mandate, which was argued before the high court last week. The Supreme Court's decision not to hear the two cases at this stage means that the federal appeals court in Washington will proceed to decide the issue.

The website for people to enroll in U.S. private health insurance faced some delays early Monday morning, just hours before the deadline for the first year of enrollment under the healthcare law. The HealthCare.gov technology team has begun bringing the site back on line gradually after it found a software bug during their monitoring of the site and fixed it during the regular maintenance window, representatives for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. It worked intermittently until a technology overhaul had it working relatively smoothly by December. Americans have until midnight on Monday to obtain health insurance under President Barack Obama's healthcare law known as Obamacare or else face fines.

(Reuters) – The success or failure of GlaxoSmithKline’s experimental heart drug darapladib remains “an open question” and will hinge on a second pivotal clinical study, the company’s chief executive said on Monday. “There are some interesting potential signals in the secondary endpoints but an awful lot about what we’ve got here is going to depend on what we see on the second study,” Andrew Witty told Reuters. “I think it is still an open question as to whether we’ve got something (that works) or not.” Although darapladib failed the main goal of the first Phase III study, the trial’s co-leader said on Sunday it still provided a glimmer of hope, after presenting a detailed report at the American College of Cardiology. The second Phase III study is looking at the drug’s effects in less stable patients who received the medicine within 30 days of a heart attack, where it is possible it may show a bigger benefit.

By Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Bariatric weight loss surgery on obese patients with type 2 diabetes helped many to get their blood sugar to healthy levels and to no longer require any diabetes medicines, including insulin, three years after the procedure, according to data presented at a major medical meeting on Monday. The study called Stampede, which involved 150 obese patients who had poorly controlled type 2 diabetes for at least eight years, was conducted by Cleveland Clinic researchers. It compared two types of weight loss surgery against weight loss attained by diet and exercise along with nutrition counseling and, for some, additional diabetes medicines that can help promote weight loss, such as Victoza from Novo Nordisk.

Monday is the deadline to sign up for private health insurance in the new online markets created by President Barack Obama’s health care law. So far, about 4 out of every 5 people enrolling have qualified for tax credits to reduce the cost of their premiums.

There’s a better way to keep wrinkles at bay than spending tons of money on expensive creams, pills, and skin treatments. And you don’t need a prescription or “healing time.” Here are five foods that will help you have flawless skin: