Year: 2014

(Reuters) – InterMune Inc’s lead drug reduced the progression of a fatal lung disease in a late stage trial, inching closer to U.S. approval and almost tripling the company’s shares. The latest trial data brings the world’s biggest drugs market closer for InterMune’s pirfenidone, a medicine already in use in Europe, Canada and Asia. Pirfenidone was rejected by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May 2010, citing lack of data to prove its effectiveness in treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a potentially fatal lung disease. The health regulator asked InterMune to conduct a new trial to support the drug’s U.S. marketing clearance.

Sure, you may reach your weight loss goal, but when you go off the diet, … eat your favorite food once a week, pack a healthy lunch several days a …

A California study has resulted in a medical breakthrough for patients wait-listed for liver transplants. Researchers from the Gladstone Institutes and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) were able to overcome a past hurdle in regenerative medicine by creating cells that were fully mature, according to ScienceDaily. The scientists used a novel cellular reprogramming technique to transform skin cells into liver cells that were fully functioning even after they were transplanted to animals modified to have the characteristics of liver failure. Their findings suggested that the new liver cells were indistinguishable from cells in existing liver tissue.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said on Tuesday that he had recently consumed alcohol, but not excessively, as he tries to get clean after admitting last year that he smoked crack while drunk and drove after drinking. Ford publicly pledged last year to stay away from drugs and alcohol and said at the time he had stopped drinking completely.

(Reuters) – Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its drug to treat rare and potentially fatal disorders involving loss of body fat. The drug has been approved as a replacement therapy to treat complications caused by leptin hormone deficiency in patients with congenital or acquired generalized lipodystrophy. Generalized lipodystrophy patients experience a loss of fat tissue, especially under the skin, leading to low levels of leptin. The deficiency can lead to diabetes, pancreatitis and fatty liver disease.

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Older men and women whose partners died within the past month are at an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to a new study from the UK. Researchers found the chance of having a heart attack or stroke doubled within the 30 days after people lost their significant other. “The period after death of a loved one is a time of increased vulnerability to a range of health problems, including heart attacks and strokes,” Dr. Sunil Shah said. “Although we know that the chance of dying of a heart attack or stroke increases after losing someone close, we had less information on the overall effect of bereavement (on) heart attacks and strokes,” including those that aren’t fatal, he wrote in an email to Reuters Health.

Sony is going from SmartWatch to SmartBand next month with the release of the Sony SmartBand SWR10. Product confirmation occurred at Mobile World Conference in Barcelona following the device's introduction at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January. "At CES 2014, I introduced SmartWear Experience as representing emotion as well as motion — moving, and being moved," said Kunimasa Suzuki, President and CEO, Sony Mobile Communications. The first device powered by Sony's new Core fitness tracking technology, the product will launch in 60 countries and features the Lifelog Android app.