Month: May 2014

By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama chastised his Republican opponents on Monday for focusing criticism on the events surrounding the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and on his signature healthcare law. "The debate we're having now is about what, Benghazi? It's not speaking to the real concerns that people have," Obama said. He was speaking to more than 60 people at a fundraising dinner for Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives.

President Barack Obama is to speak out soon about reports of healthcare delays at the Veterans Administration in an effort to underscore his determination to fix any flaws in the system. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Monday they would "hear from him at some point on this issue soon," and other officials said he was likely to comment on it before leaving on a trip to New York state and Chicago on Thursday. Eric Shinseki, head of the Veterans Administration, has faced increasing calls for his resignation over allegations that delays in treatment at veterans hospitals could have led to otherwise preventable deaths. A top department official, undersecretary of health Dr. Robert Petzel, resigned on Friday in a move critics said was an effort at damage control.

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – British researchers are launching the largest study in the world to investigate whether using mobile phones and other wireless gadgets might affect children’s brain development. The Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones, or SCAMP, project will focus on cognitive functions such as memory and attention, which continue to develop into adolescence – just the age when teenagers start to own and use personal phones. While there is no convincing evidence that radio waves from mobile phones effect health, to date most scientific research has focused on adults and the potential risk of brain cancers. “Scientific evidence available to date is reassuring and shows no association between exposure to radiofrequency waves from mobile phone use and brain cancer in adults in the short term – i.e.

(Reuters) – Ophthotech Corp said it could potentially receive over $1 billion in payments as part of a licensing deal for its experimental eye drug with Novartis AG. The company said on Monday that a unit of Novartis will market its lead experimental eye drug, Fovista, outside the United States. The payments do not include future royalties from sales of the drug outside the United States, the company said. “The deal validates Fovista, while importantly allowing the company to retain and fund the drug’s development and US commercialization,” J.P. Morgan analyst Geoff Meacham said in a note.

(Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline and Danish biotech company Genmab said disappointing results from a study on treating relapsed lymphoma with their ofatumumab drug meant it was unlikely they would seek its regulatory approval. A head-to-head phase III study of ofatumumab and another drug to fight the fast-growing blood cancer failed to meet the companies’ goals. Results showed no significant difference in progression free survival (PFS) between one treatment arm and the other, the companies said in a statement late on Monday. “Based on today’s results we are unlikely to move forward with a regulatory filing,” Jan Van De Winkel, Genmab chief executive said in the statement.

By Bill Berkrot NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc may have called its $118 billion bid for AstraZeneca Plc a “final” offer, and its British rival sees no prospect of a deal being revived. Morningstar analyst Damien Conover in Chicago said the odds of an AstraZeneca purchase had fallen well below the 50 percent mark. AstraZeneca shareholders, some of them already expressing their disappointment over the company’s rebuff of Pfizer, may still pressure the board to reconsider, analysts and fund managers said on Monday. That could force the British company to engage with Pfizer, the largest U.S. drugmaker.

By Kevin Drawbaugh WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Corporate tax-dodging deals known as inversions, in which a U.S. multinational shifts its tax domicile to a lower-tax country, would be restricted under legislation to be proposed in both houses of Congress by Democrats on Tuesday. Representative Sander Levin and Senator Carl Levin, brothers from Michigan, will both propose bills, aides said. But analysts said it was unlikely that legislation could win approval anytime soon with Congress deadlocked over fiscal policy. But for now odds of enactment are well below 50 percent," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at the independent Potomac Research Group.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — It's widely used nationwide as a germ-killing ingredient in soaps, deodorants and even toothpaste, but it's being banned in Minnesota.

Activist investor William Ackman said on Monday that Allergan Inc's chief executive has a "disabling" conflict of interest because a takeover of his company by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc would likely mean the loss of his job. Ackman and Montreal-based Valeant launched a $47 billion takeover of the company on April 22, but Allergan rejected the offer on May 12 and has not budged since. Allergan Chief Executive David Pyott is urging shareholders to let the company stand alone. Ackman, who controls a nearly 10 percent stake in Allergan as the head of Pershing Square Capital Management, criticized Allergan's position in a May 19 letter to its lead director, Michael Gallagher.

The Democratic-controlled Senate Finance Committee will hold a business meeting on Wednesday to consider the nomination of Sylvia Mathews Burwell as U.S. secretary of health and human services, a panel aide said on Monday. The 24-member committee, which includes 13 Democrats and 11 Republicans, is expected to conduct an up-or-down vote on whether to forward Burwell's nomination to the Senate floor for a final confirmation vote. The aide said Burwell's nomination will need support from a majority of lawmakers to make it to the Senate floor.

Sometimes through the darkest skies the brightest stars reveal themselves and shine. Although I never asked to be in this situation, being confronted by the darkest of fears, and accepting, confronting, and overcoming that fear enabled me to learn, grow, and be even more mortal.