Year: 2014

(Reuters) – Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp said its experimental brain disorder drug slowed the loss of muscle control in patients with Huntington’s disease after 18 months of treatment. Raptor’s shares were up about 16 percent at $17.27 in early trading on the Nasdaq. The drug, codenamed RP103, slowed the progression of muscle spasms, eye and hand movements and loss of balance compared to a placebo, Raptor said. The news comes two days after Australia-based Prana Biotechnology Ltd said its experimental drug improved cognitive function in patients with Huntington’s disease.

By Kathleen Raven NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Older men considering taking testosterone for low libido, fatigue, irritability or muscle loss should be made aware of the heart-related risks of testosterone therapy, according to a statement from the Endocrine Society. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved testosterone products only for hypogonadism, when the testicles do not produce enough testosterone. “Testosterone isn’t approved for age-related conditions and age-related decline in testosterone levels,” said statement co-author Dr. Shalender Bhasin of Harvard Medical School in Boston. Past studies have found most U.S. men receiving testosterone therapy don’t have documented testosterone measurements, Bhasin said.

China's capital Beijing issued an emergency pollution alert for the first time on Thursday, warning residents to reduce outdoor activities and construction sites to control dust given a forecast of heavy smog over the next three days. Severe pollution in Beijing has made it "barely suitable" for living, according to an official report published earlier this month, and despite numerous measures aimed at improving air quality in recent years, Beijing still regularly suffers from choking smog. The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said on its website it had issued a Yellow alert – the first use of a color-coded warning system unveiled last October.

The European Commission is taking legal action accusing Britain of exceeding limits on air pollution from traffic, forcing the UK to introduce tougher curbs or face fines over what is known to cause tens of thousands of premature deaths each year. The case, introduced on Thursday, says Britain breached EU limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions, which cause breathing and other health problems, and gives it two months to respond. The move ratchets up pressure on Britain following a ruling in May last year in the country's Supreme Court, which found it was breaking the EU Air Quality Directive and asked the European Court of Justice for guidance, due later this year. "We have the right to breathe clean air and the government has a legal duty to protect us from air pollution," said James Thornton, chief executive of environmental law firm ClientEarth, which brought the action in the Supreme Court.

Anoro, a combination drug for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Theravance, has received the green light from European regulators, the companies said on Thursday. It is expected to generate sales of more than $2 billion a year by 2018, according to the average estimate of six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

After multiple injuries, athletes and coaches debate having men and women compete on the same freestyle courses.        

Researchers from The Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island made an interesting discovery regarding a social gaming site's link to weight loss. DietBet is an online commercial weight loss program that combines social influence with financial incentive, resulting in "significant" user weight loss. Published in JMIR Serious Games, Tricia Leahey, Ph.D. and her team at the The Miriam Hospital Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center were interested in the results of DietBet and similar web-based programs. "Online social weight loss programs are accessible to large numbers of overweight and obese individuals who want to lose weight," Leahey noted, "but there has been little research to date on whether such programs are effective, or just how much weight loss they generate."

By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) – Procter & Gamble Co is bringing the dentist into the bathroom with the world’s first smartphone-connected toothbrush, a device that gives personalized advice to help people improve their brushing. The toothbrush, to be sold under P&G’s Oral-B brand and which will be widely available from June, has a Bluetooth 4.0 link to a smartphone app that can be programmed with the help of a dentist, for example to pay more attention to any areas of the mouth being neglected, P&G said. “The app provides real-time guidance,” Michael Cohen-Dumani, global associate director for Oral-B, told Reuters. Professionals had helped develop the app as a tool to manage their patients’ behavior between visits, Cohen-Dumani said.