Year: 2014

By Chris Vellacott and Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) – Britain's insurers will lose control of a market worth 15 billion pounds ($25 billion) a year under a surprise pension reform announced by the government, and will struggle to make up the hit to profits any time soon, according to analysts. This dismantles a captive market for annuity providers such as Legal & General and Resolution, which will now have to compete for pensions business against other investment products. Their shares dropped sharply on Wednesday, and analysts see little prospect of a rapid recovery. "This radical piece of legislation will destroy profitability in the highly lucrative annuity market, in our view," said RBC Capital Markets insurance analyst Gordon Aitken.

By Allison Bond NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Blocks, puzzles and other hands-on toys that have long been mainstays of children’s play are still best at teaching some skills needed for success, according to a research review. Although so-called “screen-based” entertainment – including computers, video games and cell phones – can keep young kids occupied, technology is less effective than more traditional toys in teaching spatial reasoning to preschoolers, the U.S. researchers say. And if they already have those (before they begin school), they are ahead of the curve,” said lead author Brian Verdine, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Delaware in Newark. Spatial reasoning, which is the ability to visualize and manipulate objects as they would appear in space, is important in many math- and science-oriented careers, including engineering, Verdine and his coauthors write in Trends in Neuroscience and Education.

Don Roese, 83, collapsed near a paramedic’s birthday celebration.

There are several similarities, and some major differences.

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Parents who spank their babies are at greater risk of eventually having Child Protective Services called in to protect their kids than parents who do not spank, according to a new study. “A few other studies have shown that parents that spank their children are also more likely to engage in harsh physical punishment and abusive parenting behaviors,” said lead author Shawna J. Lee from the University of Michigan School of Social Work in Ann Arbor. The American Academy of Pediatrics does not endorse spanking for any reason, and suggests time-outs as an alternative. “The collective research over the past 20 years on spanking and physical punishment clearly indicates that hitting your child is related to a wide range of negative outcomes and hasn’t shown any benefit to the child,” said Tracie O. Afifi, who studies physical punishment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Technology publisher International Data Group said on Thursday Patrick Joseph McGovern, its founder and chairman, has died aged 76. In 1964, McGovern founded what became IDG, headquartered in Boston and known for publications like Computerworld and PCWorld along with various events and websites. McGovern’s private foundation remains the majority owner of the company. The company said McGovern died on Wednesday. It did not give a cause of death. …

By Ben Hirschler and Caroline Copley BASEL, Switzerland (Reuters) – Recent manufacturing problems in India suggest some makers of generic drugs will struggle to compete in the face of a rising quality bar, pointing to a likely a shake-out in the low-cost sector, according to Novartis. Chief Executive Joe Jimenez said the Swiss group’s Sandoz unit – a world leader in making cheap off-patent medicines – was well placed to thrive in an era of tougher standards. “You’re talking about an industry where scale is going to become more important … I see this as a competitive advantage for a company like Novartis.” In recent months, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, citing quality control problems ranging from data manipulation to sanitation, has banned the importation of products from Indian firms such as Ranbaxy Laboratories and Wockhardt.

By Caroline Copley and Ben Hirschler BASEL, Switzerland (Reuters) – Novartis Chief Executive Joe Jimenez is taking a hard look at the drugmaker's smaller businesses as he reshapes the company for what he expects to be a "brutal" new era in healthcare spending. At least one of the three sub-scale units – animal health, vaccines and over-the-counter medicines – is not expected to make the cut, he told Reuters in the clearest indication yet of how the review is progressing. While the three smaller divisions make up only 10.5 percent of Novartis sales, the review – which is due to be completed by the end of the summer – is a major focus for shareholders who are pushing all drugmakers to improve returns on investment. The industry has already seen Abbott Laboratories split off its innovative drugs into Abbvie, Pfizer spin out animal health into Zoetis, and GlaxoSmithKline sell drinks brands Lucozade and Ribena.

(Reuters) – Geron Corp said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered a halt to new patient enrollments in an early-stage trial of its blood cancer drug, imetelstat, over concerns about liver damage. The halt announced on Thursday was for enrollments in a trial sponsored by Mayo Clinic, and comes a week after the FDA ordered Geron to cease company-sponsored trials of the drug over similar concerns. Imetelstat is Geron’s only remaining drug and was touted as the company’s savior after curing 22 percent of myelofibrosis patients in a trial last year. Geron said on Thursday that it could not enroll new patients in the Mayo Clinic-sponsored study, but that the trial could continue with patients benefiting from the drug.