Merck gains on US approval for combo diabetes pill
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Shares of Merck & Co. rose on Monday after the company won U.S. marketing approval for Janumet, which combines its recently introduced Januvia diabetes drug in the same tablet with the widely used metformin treatment.
Merck was up 74 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $44.91, in midday trade on the New York Stock Exchange, amid slight gains for the drug sector.
Grow-your-own Viagra craze hits Britain’s garden centres
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A chance discovery by a Berkshire allotment-holder that a plant widely available in garden centres has the same effect on men as Viagra has been confirmed by experts at one of the world’s leading botanical institutions.
The plant is winter-flowering heather, and botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, many of them heather experts who have recognised the source of its active ingredient, now expect it to be the next must-have plant in British gardens. Demand is already high. Nurseries and garden centres in some areas are having trouble finding sufficient supplies as word spreads of the plant’s unexpected properties.
DNA test will detect prostate cancer risk
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The first genetic test that allows young men to assess their risk of developing prostate cancer in later life could be available as early as next year, scientists said yesterday.
Several teams of researchers have identified a total of seven genetic risk factors that account for about half of prostate cancers in the general population.
Obese patients ‘increasing back pain among nurses’
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A rise in the number of obese patients on wards could be causing thousands of NHS nurses to seek treatment for back pain, according to experts.
About 5,000 nurses are currently being treated for back pain following a surge in patients’ weights and the number of patients a nurse has to care for, according to the British Chiropractic Association.
Cannabis debate: ‘I let my son have skunk. It ruined his life’
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Anne Waterman has followed the debate about the health hazards of cannabis with close interest. Academics and doctors say potent skunk is the cause of soaring psychiatric problems in the young; pro-drug campaigners sniff anti-cannabis conspiracies and claim there is no proof of a link.
Two weeks after The Independent on Sunday reversed its landmark campaign for the decriminalisation of cannabis, saying new evidence meant it could no longer be regarded as a “safe” drug, Mrs Waterman has watched both sides in a highly charged debate. And she has wondered about the sense of it all.
