Drug prices rise under US Medicare plan
Prices for some of the most popular medicines used by seniors have jumped an average of 4 percent under the new Medicare drug benefit since it began last month, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The report, released by the Democratic staff of the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee, found prices for Pfizer Inc.’s pain reliever Celebrex, Merck Inc.’s cholesterol drug Zocor and eight other top drugs offered by 10 major plans rose during the controversial program’s first seven weeks.
In some cases, drug prices rose 10 percent, it also found.
Britain sees dangers in bird flu vaccines
Bird flu vaccines mask the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus and fail to offer a general solution to the spread of the disease, Britain’s farm ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Crucially, though these vaccines protect against disease, they will not prevent birds from becoming infected and shedding virus,” Deputy Chief Vet Fred Landeg said in a statement issued by the ministry. “Because symptoms of disease would be masked, the hidden presence of disease would pose a serious problem,” he added.
Medicare to pay for some obesity surgeries
Obese elderly or disabled patients are now eligible for a variety of surgical weight-loss procedures under the U.S. Medicare health insurance plan, U.S. government officials said on Tuesday.
Patients must have tried and failed other weight loss options, have at least one weight-related medical problem and have a high body mass index, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said.
US will spend one in five dollars on healthcare
Health-care spending is outpacing the growth of the American economy and will consume 20 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said on Wednesday.
By comparison, health-care spending accounted for about 16 percent of U.S. GDP in 2004, the latest year for which data are available, according to a study by CMS economists published in the journal Health Affairs.
National health care spending will grow by an average 7.2 percent annually over the coming decade, the study estimated. This will be slower than in recent years but still 2.1 percent faster than GDP growth, it said.
Use of Statins Shows Improvement in Erectile Performance of Some Men
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine say preliminary results of a small study show promise in improving erectile dysfunction (ED) in men who had shown minimal reaction to Viagra. The study results are published in the March issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Erectile dysfunction is often a sign of a more severe vascular problem that involves abnormalities in the lining of the blood vessels. And often, endothelial dysfunction is an underlying problem for ED - it can be one of the first signs of atherosclerosis, a build-up of plaque and blockages in the arteries.
“It’s already known that there is a connection between erectile dysfunction and coronary disease. The risk factors are the same for both, and thus, ED can be a marker for coronary disease,” explains lead author Howard Herrmann, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. “Normal erections are caused when nitric oxide is made, but with endothelial dysfunction, the body doesn’t make enough of it, causing the erectile dysfunction. Normally, Viagra prevents the breakdown of the little nitric oxide that is there, so that there is enough of it for an erection to occur.”
Pfizer receives FDA approval for Eraxis to treat candidemia
Pfizer said today that Eraxis (anidulafungin) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat candidemia, a potentially life-threatening bloodstream infection. Candidemia is the most deadly of the common hospital-acquired bloodstream infections, with a mortality rate of approximately 40 percent.
In the United States, candidemia affects approximately one in 5,000 people, resulting in an estimated 60,000 cases each year. “Bloodstream infections such as candidemia can spread quickly and are very dangerous, especially for patients with weakened immune systems,” said Dr. Joseph Feczko, Pfizer’s chief medical officer. “Physicians treating these seriously ill patients now have an important new treatment in Eraxis.”
Dart injuries rise as beginners get the point
A wave of international victories for Dutch darts players has prompted an increase in the number of injuries as people take up the game at home, according to the Dutch consumer safety association.
Over-eagerness caused some of the most injuries, said a spokeswoman for the group, with players hurling their darts before opponents had finished retrieving their own.
Poorly hung dartboards also posed problems. “Often the board falls down on someone’s foot or worse on someone’s head,” she added.
US top court allows religious hallucinogenic tea
U.S. followers of a small Brazilian-based religion can import and use hallucinogenic tea in their ceremonies, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in a case pitting religious freedom against federal drug laws.
The top court in an opinion written by new Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the U.S. government’s effort to stop the importation and use of sacramental hoasca tea by the New Mexican branch of the religion called O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal.
Ebola DNA vaccine shows promise
Vical Incorporated has announced that an Ebola vaccine candidate administered using Vical’s proprietary DNA delivery technology was safe and well tolerated, and produced both antibody and T-cell Ebola-specific responses in all healthy volunteers who received the full 3 doses of vaccine.
The Phase 1, randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-escalation study, the first human trial for any Ebola vaccine, was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and conducted at the NIH Clinical Center. The data were presented at the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) 2006 Biodefense Research Meeting in Washington, D.C., by Julie E. Martin, D.O., a trial investigator and research scientist at NIAID’s Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center (VRC), which developed the vaccine. The DNA vaccine used in the Phase 1 trial incorporates genetic material encoding core and surface proteins from two strains of Ebola. Vical has secured a nonexclusive license from the NIH to proprietary gene sequences used in the vaccine.
Mother’s stress linked to early miscarriage
Pregnant women who experience stress in the first few weeks of pregnancy appear to have an increased risk of miscarriage, according to findings from a small study of women in Guatemala.
Maternal stress is often considered a risk factor for miscarriage, yet data supporting this association are lacking, lead author Dr. Pablo A. Nepomnaschy, from the National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and colleagues note.
Previous studies looking at this topic may have failed to identify a link because they focused on women at least 6 weeks after their last menstrual period. By contrast, most miscarriages occur earlier in pregnancy, usually within three weeks of conception.
Food experts say public has inadequate understanding of food risk issues
A recent study shows that food safety experts have little confidence in the public’s understanding of food risk issues. The study is published in the Journal of Food Safety.
Researchers surveyed 400 food safety experts in Ireland to determine what they think about the public’s understanding and knowledge of food risk issues, including factors such as what they think contribute to this knowledge as well as the gaps in understanding, and how they feel this could be rectified.
Some heart drugs may provide added benefits
Taking prescription beta-blockers or statin drugs may boost the chances of having only mild chest pain instead of a heart attack as the first symptom of heart disease, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
The scientists studied 1,400 patients newly diagnosed with heart disease to try to pinpoint why some had heart attacks while others experienced chest pain, known as exercise-induced angina, which is far less dangerous.
