Year: 2014

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – Gaming enthusiasts across the world can from Tuesday join the search for cancer cures with a citizen science project using a smartphone game to help researchers analyze vast volumes of genetic data from tumor samples. Called “Play to Cure: Genes in Space”, the spaceship game is designed for smartphones and was launched by the charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK), which hopes it will speed up the decoding of data to reveal patterns of the genetic faults that cause cancers to grow and spread. Each time a player steers the ship to follow the Element Alpha path, they also reveal patterns and, unwittingly, provide analysis of variations in the genetic data, explained Hannah Keartland, who led the project for CRUK and unveiled the game at a London launch on Tuesday. It is this information that will be fed back to CRUK scientists.

A breakdown of what we know and don’t know about the drug that roughly 5.4 million Americans use on an almost-daily basis.        

(Reuters) – Health insurer Centene Corp reported a nearly six-fold rise in quarterly profit, helped by new contract wins and expansion of existing contracts. Net earnings attributable to Centene rose to $53.2 million, or 93 cents per share, in the fourth quarter, from $9.1 million, or 17 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding discontinued operations, profit was 84 cents per share in the quarter ended December 31, ahead of analysts’ estimates of 83 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Premium and services revenue rose about 31 percent to $2.86 billion as Centene won new contracts in Kansas, California and New Hampshire, and expanded existing contracts in Mississippi, Ohio and Florida. Centene raised its full-year premium and service revenue forecast due to the health insurer fee under the Affordable Care Act and to account for the benefit from its acquisition of a majority stake in home health services provider U.S. Medical Management LLC. The company now expects full-year premium and service revenue of $13.8-$14.3 billion, compared with the $13.5-$14.0 billion it forecast in December.

By Caroline Copley WINTERTHUR, Switzerland (Reuters) – Low taxes and good infrastructure aside, what entrepreneur Thorsten Schwenke really needs to grow his small Swiss-based business is the right people, regardless of their nationality. That's why he is so bewildered by a vote in Switzerland on February 9 on whether to impose restrictions on immigrants from the European Union, and by the proposal's increasing popularity in a country where foreign labor helped forge a powerful economy. "If I was forced to only consider hiring Swiss people, I would just move," said 41-year-old Schwenke, who founded Thelkin, a maker of mechanical testing equipment for orthopedic implants in the northeastern town of Winterthur in 2010. "For a company my size, the right people are more important than the tax benefits." A vote in favor of the motion, 12 years after a free movement of people agreement with the European Union came into force, could hurt an economy reliant on foreign professionals by increasing red tape and calling into question its bilateral accords with the bloc.

By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) – Pope Francis called for a fair distribution of wealth and equal access to education and health care on Tuesday in a Lenten message where he urged people to reach out and touch "the poverty of our brothers". During Lent, which begins on March 5 this year, Christians are called on to carry out acts of self-denial and help those less fortunate. He again called on the wealthy to share their good fortune, to not be blind to the needs of others, and not to practice superficial solidarity or vain displays of self-denial. "Our consciences thus need to be converted to justice, equality, simplicity and sharing." Francis said material poverty and moral destitution were often intertwined.

Shares in Adcock Ingram fell to their weakest level in seven months on Tuesday, extending their decline into a third day after it became clear a $1.2 billion bid for the drugmaker by Chile's CFR Pharmaceuticals is set to fail. Adcock shareholder Bidvest Group, which opposed CFR's takeover, last week raised its stake to 34.5 percent, enough to unilaterally vote down CFR's offer of 74.50 rand a share. Adcock, South Africa's second-largest drugmaker, is to hold urgent talks with CFR following Bidvest's buying spree and the Santiago-based company is widely expected to drop its stock and cash takeover offer. Investors were betting Bidvest is unlikely to extend its 70 rand per share offer to remaining shareholders.

There could be a hidden reason you’re gaining weight.        

By Tova Cohen TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israeli medical device maker Medigus expects revenue of a few million dollars in 2014 as it begins to sell its flexible endoscope for the treatment of acid reflux. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is caused by abnormal regurgitation of fluids from the stomach into the esophagus. Patients who do not respond to treatment with drugs often undergo laparoscopic surgery. In the medical device world you need to get … innovators to try the product,” Chris Rowland, an American who took over as chief executive of Medigus in October, told Reuters on Tuesday.