Month: July 2014

(Reuters) – Puma Biotechnology Inc said its experimental breast cancer drug met its main goal in a late-stage trial. Puma said on Tuesday it plans to file for marketing approval of neratinib, code named PB272, in the first half of 2015. Adjuvant treatment with the drug showed a statistically significant improvement in disease-free survival of 33 percent versus patients on placebo, according to trial data. Adjuvant treatment, or additional treatment, is given after the primary treatment.

Congressional investigators using fake identities were able to obtain taxpayer-subsidized health insurance under President Barack Obama's law, according to testimony to be delivered Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs pledged Tuesday to transform the beleaguered agency, saying that "systematic failures" must be addressed.

An initiative seeking to legalize, tax and regulate recreational marijuana in Oregon has qualified for the November ballot, the state said on its website on Tuesday. Only two U.S. states, Washington and Colorado, currently allow recreational marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law. Oregon's proposal will come before voters just two years after they rejected a similar measure. "This is a moment we've been waiting for, that we've worked months to get to," said Peter Zuckerman, spokesman for the campaign in favor of the Oregon initiative.

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK – More than 100 locations on the human genome may play a role in a person’s risk of developing schizophrenia, according to a new study. While the results do not have an immediate effect on those living with the psychiatric disorder, one of the study’s authors said they open areas of research that had not seen advances in recent years. “The exciting thing about having little openings is it gives you a place to dig and make big openings,” said Steve McCarroll, director of genetics for the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. McCarroll is part of the Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, which published the study in the journal Nature.

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Smoking during pregnancy has been linked to a higher chance of the child having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and a new study suggests women who use nicotine replacement products may also have children with an elevated risk. For instance, it could be that women dependent on nicotine are more likely to have ADHD symptoms themselves, said senior author Dr. Carsten Obel, from Aarhus University in Denmark. The children of women who use nicotine replacement products to quit smoking may be at risk of ADHD because of genes or their family environment, he told Reuters Health by email. Mothers were interviewed while pregnant and asked if they currently smoked, used nicotine replacement products including gum, patches or sprays or had quit smoking before pregnancy without nicotine replacement.

By David Morgan and Aruna Viswanatha WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two U.S. judicial panels on Tuesday injected new uncertainty into the future of President Barack Obama's healthcare law, with conflicting rulings over whether the federal government can subsidize health insurance for millions of Americans. The appeals court rulings, handed down by three-judge panels in Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, augured a possible rematch before the U.S. Supreme Court, which in June 2012 narrowly upheld the Democratic president's 2010 healthcare overhaul.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will announce its safety advisory panel later this week following breaches in its handling of anthrax and a deadly form of bird flu in recent weeks, the director of the agency said on Tuesday. CDC's Dr Thomas Frieden told reporters the members of the panel will consist of biosecurity experts who have no ties to the agency. The CDC has shut down two labs involved in the anthrax and bird flu incidents and has suspended the transfer of samples from high-security labs until their safety protocols are reviewed. As a result, Frieden has pledged to make sweeping changes to improve safety measures at CDC labs handling dangerous bacteria and viruses.

DANVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Doctors had a simple goal when they first saw how a football-size rock thrown from an interstate overpass in Pennsylvania had shattered Sharon Budd's skull — to keep her alive.