UK cost agency says ‘no’ to Bayer prostate cancer drug Xofigo

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s healthcare cost agency has recommended against using Bayer’s new prostate cancer drug Xofigo on the state health service because the German firm did not provide evidence on how well it worked compared to other therapies. The draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), issued on Monday, is now subject to consultation. “We are disappointed not to able to recommend this drug, but we have to be confident that its benefits justify its considerable cost,” said NICE Chief Executive Andrew Dillon. …

Treasury’s Lew to undergo treatment for enlarged prostate

U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew speaks during a news conference in Mexico CityTreasury Secretary Jack Lew will have an outpatient surgical procedure in New York on Tuesday for treatment of a benign enlarged prostate, the Treasury Department said on Sunday. Lew expects to stay at home in New York for the rest of the week, and "his physician expects that he will be able to return to his full schedule next week," Treasury spokeswoman Natalie Wyeth Earnest said in a statement. The 58-year-old Lew became Treasury secretary in February 2013 after serving as President Barack Obama's chief of staff.

As many as 32,000 kids infected with drug-resistant TB: report

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – As many as 32,000 children worldwide become sick each year with a drug-resistant “superbug” strain of tuberculosis, according to new estimates by U.S. researchers that for the first time quantify rates of this difficult-to-treat form of TB. Overall, as many as 1 million children become sick with TB each year, about twice the number previously thought, and of these, only a third of the cases are ever diagnosed, the study found. “A huge proportion (of children) are suffering and dying from TB unnecessarily,” said Helen Jenkins of Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Division of Global Health Equity, the lead statistician on the study published on Sunday in the Lancet. The findings, published as part of a special theme issue of Lancet to commemorate World TB Day on March 24, offer the clearest picture yet of the global burden of tuberculosis among its youngest victims, and for the first time estimate the burden of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis or MDR-TB.

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