By Charlie Dunmore and Claire Davenport BRUSSELS | Mon Dec 17, 2012 12:05pm EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's executive Commission is to propose larger health warnings on cigarette packets and a total ban on flavorings such as menthol, a draft revision of EU tobacco rules seen by Reuters showed on Monday. The proposals stop short of f...

Mon Dec 17, 2012 12:03pm EST (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators have approved a new four-strain seasonal influenza vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the company said on Monday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Fluarix Quadrivalent to immunize children age 3 and older and adults against flu virus subtypes A and B contained in the vaccine.It is...

By Dorene Internicola NEW YORK | Mon Dec 17, 2012 9:42am EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - The word "detoxification" is flung around the fitness community as frequently as kettlebells are swung. Yoga teachers regularly speak of detoxifying twists, aerobics instructors of detoxifying sweat, dieters of detoxifying fasts. But health professionals are skeptic...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Mon Dec 17, 2012 12:07am EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A mercury-containing preservative should not be banned as an ingredient in vaccines, U.S. pediatricians said Monday, in a move that may be controversial. In its statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) endorsed calls from a World Health Organization ...

While the United States stares into the abyss of the fiscal cliff Jan. 1, the Social Security universal health care system (Caja) faces another chasm -- a medical one. The University of Costa Rica has given the Caja notice this month that, due to a 5.3 billion colon deficit in the past several years, it will terminate its contract to run 45 routine medical treatment centers in three of the most...

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK | Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:56pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Setting the clock ahead for daylight savings time may set the scene for a small increase in heart attacks the next day, according to a small new study that suggests sleep-deprivation might be to blame. Researchers at two Michigan hospitals reviewed six years of...

By Ben Hirschler LONDON | Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:04pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - A novel drug to fight alcohol dependency was given a green light by European regulators on Friday, providing a boost to Danish drugmaker Lundbeck at a time when its top product faces a big drop in sales. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Friday it recommended appro...

By Kerry Grens NEW YORK | Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:02pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Menopausal women who took soy supplements during a two-year trial reported no differences in quality of life compared to their counterparts taking placebo pills, U.S. researchers report. It's possible that soy could still offer women some benefits through menopause,...

Fri Dec 14, 2012 3:55pm EST (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday granted earlier-than-expected approval to Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc's drug for two rares types of leukemia, but is requiring that patients be warned of potential side effects, sending the company's shares down nearly 20 percent. The drug, given the brand name Iclusig, was appr...

By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON | Fri Dec 14, 2012 3:11pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Friday tightened limits on harmful soot pollution from sources including power plants, diesel engines and burning wood. The new standards, which the Environmental Protection Agency was under court order to finalize, limit annual average ...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Fri Dec 14, 2012 1:53pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Having twins as a result of in vitro fertilization (IVF) carries higher risks of complications for both mother and babies than having two single babies from separate IVF procedures, according to a new Swedish study. The extra concerns that come with multiple bir...

FRANKFURT | Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:35pm EST FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German drugmaker Bayer said on Friday it requested approval from U.S. regulators for an experimental prostate cancer drug that could eventually generate more than 1 billion euros ($1.31 billion) in annual sales. Radium-223 dichloride, which Bayer used to call Alpharadin, is designed to target...

By Sonia Elks MOSCOW | Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:02am EST MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia took a step towards clamping down on the tobacco industry on Friday as a bill to ban smoking in public spaces and to restrict tobacco sales sailed through its first reading in parliament. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that 44 million Russians, nearly one in th...

LONDON | Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:48am EST LONDON (Reuters) - European regulators recommended against approval of Sanofi and Isis Pharmaceutical's Kynamro drug for treatment of a rare genetic disorder that causes unusually high cholesterol. The European Medicines Agency said it was concerned about the medicine's safety, noting that a high proportion of patien...

Washington, D.C., 13 December 2012 — The Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, today strongly welcomed the announcement by the United Nations’ Secretary-General of support for efforts to eliminate cholera transmission from Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced $23.5 million in new funds from the United Nations and $...

Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:09am EST (Reuters) - Eli Lilly and Co said it will stop one of three late-stage trials of its rheumatoid arthritis (RA) drug tabalumab due to insufficient efficacy. The decision to stop the trial came after an interim futility analysis of the study, called FLEX-M.The trial was testing the drug in patients with moderate-to-severe RA who had an i...

By Ben Hirschler LONDON | Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:30am EST LONDON (Reuters) - An experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug from AstraZeneca proved inferior to Abbott Laboratories' Humira in a clinical study, knocking hopes for one of the few late-stage products in the company's pipeline. The mid-sized study of fostamatinib - which is given as a pill rath...

By Mary Slosson SACRAMENTO | Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:15pm EST SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown is undergoing treatment for early-stage prostate cancer with an excellent prognosis for recovery, and the 74-year-old Democrat is expected to keep up a full work schedule, his office said on Wednesday. "Fortunately, this is early-stage...

LONDON | Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:08pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - There is little evidence to back the use of a cannabis extract spray made by GW Pharmaceuticals for spasticity in patients with multiple sclerosis, according to a medical journal review published on Thursday. GW Pharma said the report in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB), a British Medical J...

Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:56pm EST (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc said it would buy Canada's YM BioSciences Inc for about $510 million in cash, getting access to a second experimental drug to treat a rare blood and immune cell disorder. Gilead shares closed down 0.14 percent at $76.23 on the Nasdaq, while YM's U.S.-listed shares closed up 77 percent at $2.88, just unde...

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK | Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:57pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Dying cancer patients are less likely to want aggressive end-of-life care if they watch a short video about CPR than if they simply hear about it, according to a new study. "These are huge differences. You will die very differently if you watch the video than i...

By Kerry Grens NEW YORK | Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:04pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Patients who go through a mind-body educational course are better able to manage irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), according to a new study. The benefits of the course were modest, about as large as what are typically seen from taking medications, said Dr. Emeran Maye...

COPENHAGEN | Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:44pm EST COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish pharmaceutical group H Lundbeck A/S said on Wednesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the submission of a new drug application for an antidepressant. Lundbeck and its Japanese partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd submitted the new antidepressant, vortioxetine,...

By Kerry Grens NEW YORK | Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:19pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children born via cesarean section are slightly more likely than babies delivered vaginally to become heavy or obese, according to a new review of studies. The results don't prove that c-sections cause kids to put on weight, but Dr. Jianmeng Liu, one of the authors ...

Nowhere is the generation gap between Costa Rican youth and adults more marked than on the subject of sex education. Evangelical adults and Catholic bishops tend to believe that such instruction should be left to largely ill-informed parents. A recent survey of kids 15-19 years old reveals that 92% feel that 13 years old is not too soon to begin learning about sex and 60% would like to see it t...

In the past The Costa Rica Star has published extensively on Monsanto and GMO products. The official response to the request by Monsanto for seed planting and research is being hampered by lobbyists who are opposed to the concept. Elfinancierocr.com reports that "The National Biosafety Technical Commission requested further studies on the impacts of transgenic corn planting in Costa Rica by ...

Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:36am EST (Reuters) - Trimel Pharmaceuticals Corp said its experimental drug to treat hypogonadism, or low testosterone levels, in men met the main goal of a late-stage study. The company said patients who were administered the intranasal drug CompleoTRT for 90 days showed average testosterone levels within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's...

By Foo Yun Chee and Ben Hirschler BRUSSELS | Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:36am EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's highest court has upheld a 52.5 million euro ($69 million) antitrust fine levied against AstraZeneca for blocking the entry of cheaper rivals to its then bestseller ulcer drug Losec. The decision is a blow for the British drugmaker an...

By Laura L. Myers SEATTLE | Thu Dec 6, 2012 8:14am EST SEATTLE (Reuters) - Washington state made history on Thursday as the first in the nation to legalize marijuana possession for adult recreational use, an occasion celebrated by dozens of users near Seattle's famed Space Needle tower amid blaring reggae music and a haze of pot smoke. The public...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Wed Dec 5, 2012 4:39pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Studies suggesting that everything from cinnamon to lobster either raises or lowers a person's risk of cancer may sometimes be a bunch of baloney, a new report suggests. Researchers created a list of 50 random food items, then found studies from the last 35 years...

Danger was averted during a river cleanup on Sunday, November 18, when a plastic container of toxic insecticide was found near the mouth of the Nosara River. About 15 people were participating in the cleanup when one stumbled upon the jar and noticed its red label warning of the highly toxic contents, related Javier Hernandez Jiron, president of the fishing association Asociación de Pescadores ...

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK | Tue Dec 4, 2012 7:05pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When it comes to sperm counts, French men aren't what they used to be, according to a new study. Researchers found that between 1989 and 2005, the number of sperm in one milliliter of the average 35-year-old Frenchman's semen fell from about 74 million to about ...

By Kate Kelland LONDON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:38pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Little progress has been made in improving the long-term health of extremely premature babies, and with pre-term births on the rise across Europe, rates of serious disability are likely to increase, doctors said on Wednesday. A decade of advances in medicine mean more babies b...

Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:17pm EST (Reuters) - Chelsea Therapeutics Inc said its experimental hypotension drug met the main goal of a study by significantly reducing dizziness in patients at week one, but results beyond that period were not statistically significant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve the drug, Northera, in March, and asked for dat...

By Debra Sherman and Caroline Humer Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:16pm EST (Reuters) - Baxter International Inc said on Tuesday it would buy privately held Swedish kidney dialysis product company Gambro AB for about $4 billion, a tie-up that would make it No. 2 in the dialysis market. Baxter, whose shares fell nearly 1 percent, will finance the acquisition with cash ...

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON | Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:14pm EST LONDON (Reuters) - Greek hospitals are in such dire straits that staff are failing to keep up basic disease controls such as using gloves and gowns, threatening a rise in multidrug-resistant infections, according to Europe's top health official. Greece already h...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Tue Dec 4, 2012 4:11pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Less than a quarter of new doctors finishing an internal medicine training program planned to become a primary care physician instead of a specialist, in a new study. That suggests fewer generalists will be entering the workforce, researchers said - possibly exac...

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK | Tue Dec 4, 2012 3:11pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among people with advanced cancer, poorer patients are less likely to be referred for clinical trials of experimental drugs, a new study from the UK suggests. Because those early trials will eventually help regulators decide if drugs should be approved for a wide...

PHOENIX | Tue Dec 4, 2012 2:59pm EST PHOENIX (Reuters) - Police are looking for an 11-year-old leukemia patient spirited out of a Phoenix hospital by her mother and are concerned a chest catheter in the girl's heart could lead to a fatal infection, authorities said on Tuesday. Emily Bracamontes went missing from Phoenix Children's Hospital on November 28...

By Kerry Grens NEW YORK | Tue Dec 4, 2012 1:48pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Fistfights among kids have become less common over the last decade in 19 of 30 countries surveyed in a new report. "It was not something that we anticipated," said William Pickett, the lead author of the study in the journal Pediatrics and a professor at Queen's Univ...