Year: 2014

By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India on Monday marked three years since its last reported case of polio, paving the way for it to be declared free of the crippling virus and boosting efforts to wipe out the disease globally, the Organization (WHO) said. The country's last case of the wild polio virus was detected on Jan 13, 2011, in a two-year-old girl in the state of West Bengal. Three years without any new cases means India can be declared polio-free. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the only countries in the world where the disease remains endemic.

China reported one more death from the H7N9 strain of bird flu in southwestern Guizhou province, state news agency Xinhua said on Monday, in the second death from the virus in the past week. A 38-year-old man from Zunyi city died last Thursday, Xinhua said, citing health authorities in Guizhou. Xinhua said it was the first human case of H7N9 in Guizhou this year. Last Friday, China said a 38-year-old man in eastern Fujian province died from H7N9.

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(Reuters) – Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc said its Chief Executive would leave and it would cut its workforce by about 45 percent, as it moves its focus away from drug discovery to completing the studies of its drugs in late-stage development. “This transition increases Lexicon’s financial strength and will enable the company to more effectively advance our key late-stage programs and to prepare for commercialization,” CEO Arthur Sands said in a statement on Monday. The company said it would focus mainly on its drugs to treat diabetes and carcinoid syndrome, a condition which affects some people with a rare cancerous tumor. The company is testing two other drugs in mid-stage trials to treat irritable bowel syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis.

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NEW DELHI (AP) — India marked three years Monday since its last reported polio case, putting the country on course to being formally declared free of the disease later this year.

By Naomi Tajitsu and Colin Packham WELLINGTON/SYDNEY (Reuters) – New Zealand's Fonterra said on Monday it was recalling products distributed in the country that had been contaminated with the E.Coli bacteria in the second food-safety scare faced by the company in less than six months. The dairy co-operative said it was recalling 8,700 bottles of fresh cream marketed under its Anchor brand with a 'best before date' of January 21, 2014 and which were distributed to retail and food service outlets around New Zealand's North Island. Cream sold under the Pams brand, owned by New Zealand's Foodstuffs distributor and retailer, was also included in the recall. "We are sorry for the inconvenience and concern this recall might cause, but food safety and quality are our top priorities," Fonterra said in a statement.

A jolt of caffeine can boost memory, according to a study published Sunday that provides a scientific motive for students slurping coffee, tea or energy drinks when cramming for exams. A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, found that caffeine enhances certain memories for at least a day after they were formed. To strip out this confounding factor, a team led by Michael Yassa, an assistant professor of psychological and brain science, tried a different tack.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has raised concerns about the manufacturing practices at a factory owned by Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, the Indian drugmaker said on Monday, sending its shares down to nearly a one-month low. All of Ranbaxy's India-based factories are currently banned by the FDA from exporting medicines to the United States, the company's largest market, after the regulator's inspection found violation of its so-called good manufacturing practices. The company, India's biggest drugmaker by sales, said the FDA had now filed "certain observations" about its Toansa pharmaceutical ingredients plant in the northern state of Punjab. Failure to address these concerns would result in the FDA banning all exports to the United States from the factory.

By Ransdell Pierson SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – French drugmaker Sanofi will buy a 12 percent stake in Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc for $700 million and deepen their partnership to develop drugs for rare genetic diseases. The companies said in a joint statement on Monday that Sanofi would buy Alnylam shares for about $80 each, representing a 27 percent premium compared to their average price over the past 30 days. The partnership between Sanofi and Alnylam began in 2012, the year after Sanofi jumped into the business of treating rare genetic diseases by paying more than $20 billion for U.S. biotechnology company Genzyme, a leader in the field. The Genzyme drugs include blockbuster treatments such as Fabrazyme for a rare condition called Fabry disease and Cerezyme for Gaucher disease.