Tax sugary drinks to fight obesity, WHO urges governments

A competitor prepares to go in front of judges at a casting call for the second season of the reality television programme "Dance Your Ass Off" in New YorkBy Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) – Governments should tax sugary drinks to fight the global epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, recommendations industry swiftly branded "discriminatory" and "unproven". A 20 percent price increase could reduce consumption of sweet drinks by the same proportion, the WHO said in "Fiscal Policies for Diet and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases", a report issued on World Obesity Day. Drinking fewer calorific sweet drinks is the best way to curb excessive weight and prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes, although fat and salt in processed foods are also at fault, WHO officials said.

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No silver lining in failed Bristol cancer drug trial

A trader passes by a screen displaying the tickers symbols for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Intelsat, Ltd. on the floor at the New York Stock ExchangeBy Ben Hirschler COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Bristol-Myers Squibb disappointed investors on Sunday as researchers detailed data for its Opdivo cancer immunotherapy, which was already known to have failed to do better than older chemotherapies in a closely watched clinical trial. Some analysts had speculated the study would at least show Opdivo worked in a subset of lung cancer patients with a biomarker that should make them more receptive to immunotherapy, but there was no sign of this. Bristol first announced the trial failure in August, since when its shares have fallen by around a quarter, but experts have been waiting eagerly to learn exactly what went wrong and see if something might be salvaged from the setback.

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