Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
Obama seeks to defuse healthcare fight with appeals court
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. courts have authority to decide
whether President Barack Obama’s healthcare law is valid under
the Constitution, his attorney general told a federal court on
Thursday in a further bid to defuse a controversy Obama ignited
earlier this week. After Obama appeared to question the role of
the courts in reviewing the two-year-old law, which seeks to
expand healthcare coverage to 30 million-plus uninsured
Americans, a conservative Texas judge on the U.S. Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals ordered the administration to explain itself.
Novo Nordisk says diabetes drug Victoza superior to Merck
rival
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Danish Novo Nordisk
, the
world’s biggest insulin producer, said on Friday it had
received a product label update for diabetes drug Victoza to
include data showing superior efficacy when compared with rival
drug Januvia from Merck . The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) would update the product label for Victoza
to include data showing superior blood sugar control and weight
reduction when compared with Januvia, Novo Nordisk said in a
statement.
Crackdown on prescription pain killers widens to Walgreens
BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration said on Friday it is inspecting six Walgreens Co
pharmacies and its distribution center in Florida,
after the agency noticed a jump in purchases of the highly
addictive pain killer oxycodone. The DEA issued inspection
warrants on Wednesday to Walgreens’ distribution center in
Jupiter and to retail stores in Hudson, Port Richey, Oviedo,
Fort Myers and two stores in Fort Pierce, said Mia Ro, a
spokeswoman for the DEA in Miami.
Female skiers likelier to injure non-dominant knee
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Women skiers are more likely
than men to injure a knee while skiing, and a new study shows
they are about twice as likely to have that injury occur to
their non-dominant leg, often the left one. The study did not
go so far as to explain these inequalities, but Dr. Robert
Johnson, a sports medicine physician at the University of
Vermont College of Medicine said it could be caused ”by a whole
herd of issues.”
Emotional issues may follow motor problems in kids
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A new study suggests the way
kids with severe coordination problems see themselves may
influence their emotional wellbeing later in life. Coordination
issues — sometimes diagnosed as developmental coordination
disorder (DCD) — prevent people from accomplishing everyday
tasks, such as using scissors or buttoning their shirts. The
disorder can lead to frustration at school, at home and on the
playground.
Suicide rates rising among Canadian girls
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A new study finds suicide rates
for female teens and preteens in Canada rose over the past few
decades while the overall number of kids who took their own
lives was dropping. Researchers with Canada’s public health
agency also noted a change in the youngsters’ favored methods
of suicide — from guns or poisons, to suffocation by
strangulation — though they can’t say why.
Analysis: Justice Kagan–Giving liberals a rhetorical lift
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – During three days of arguments over
the Obama healthcare plan, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan
put on a display of rhetorical firepower, reinforcing
predictions that the newest liberal justice is best equipped to
take on the conservative, five-man majority controlling the
bench. The strong views and persuasive tactics of the
administration’s former top lawyer could affect the fate of the
healthcare overhaul, as well as decisions in other
ideologically charged issues that will come before the court,
such as same-sex marriage.
ISS urges Illumina holders to reject Roche proposals
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A major shareholders advisory service
on Friday urged holders of U.S. gene sequencing company
Illumina to vote against rejected suitor Roche Holdings AG’s
proxy contest to expand Illumina’s board and fill it with its
own nominees. Institutional Shareholders Services advised
Illumina shareholders to reject proposals from Swiss
pharmaceutical giant Roche, and agreed with Illumina’s board
that the Swiss pharmaceutical’s offer to take over the San
Diego-based company is inadequate.
Fake drugs hard to spot amid 1,800 UK wholesalers
LONDON (Reuters) – Stamping out trade in counterfeit drugs
like Roche’s Avastin is an uphill fight for
regulators, whose task is complicated by the presence of
thousands of small wholesalers across Europe. In Britain alone
– the transit point for a second fake batch of the cancer drug
uncovered in the U.S. market – there are around 1,800 licensed
wholesalers, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
U.S. panel backs Astellas drug for leaky bladder
SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) – U.S. advisers backed a
bladder drug from Astellas Pharma Inc <4503.T> on Thursday,
boosting the company’s hopes of gaining approval for a second
treatment for overactive bladder. A panel of outside advisers
to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted 7 to 4, with one
abstention, that the benefits of the once-daily tablet, called
mirabegron, outweighed its possible risks to the heart and
liver.
