Health

The financial burden of high insulin costs that patients and insurers face is often blamed on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulatory framework, but a new study suggests pharmaceutical companies have also been using patenting processes to unfairly maintain high costs. In the FDA’s master list of approved medications, devices, and other therapeutics, a document known as the Orange Book, patent ownership of each item governs which companies are allowed to manufacture and sell which therapies. The FDA deals with drug approval, but patents are granted by another agency entirely, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Though there are rules governing which developments by pharmaceutical companies merit inclusion in the FDA’s Orange Book, experts have long said that the book r...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating cinnamon apple puree and applesauce products amid reports of elevated blood lead levels in at least 34 individuals. Residents in more than 20 states have reported illness after exposure to cinnamon apple products offered by three brands: WanaBana, Weis, and Schnucks. The goods are manufactured in Ecuador and have since been recalled. Recent screens by the FDA and other state partners found lead levels in at least one product nearly 200 times greater than those in FDA guidelines. “FDA’s leading hypothesis is that cinnamon used in these recalled pouches is the likely source of contamination for these products; however, the FDA has not yet been able to collect and test samples of the cinnamon used in the recalled products,” an FDA pres...

There’s a common malfunction that occurs when well-intentioned people open their mouths to say no: The word “yes” tumbles out instead.We’ve all been there, says Vanessa Bohns, department chair and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University. No is a deceptively short, simple word that can trigger several layers of anxiety for the person trying to say it. For starters: What does it reveal about our character? “We worry that we’re essentially communicating that we’re not a helpful person; we’re not a nice, kind person; we’re not a team player,” Bohns says. “We’re too lazy to take something on, or we don’t want to work hard.”At the same time, she adds, we’re likely stressing over how that “no” might offend the other person, and what it conveys about our relationship with them. ...

Britain's medicines regulator has authorized the world's first gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease, in a move that could offer relief to thousands of people with the crippling disease in the U.K.In a statement on Thursday, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it approved Casgevy, the first medicine licensed using the gene editing tool CRISPR, which won its makers a Nobel prize in 2020.The agency approved the treatment for patients with sickle cell disease and thalassemia who are 12 years old and over. Casgevy is made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Ltd. and CRISPR Therapeutics. To date, bone marrow transplants, extremely arduous procedures that come with very unpleasant side effects, have been the only long-lasting treatment.“The future of life-changing cures r...

As you make your shopping list, plan travel, and schedule parties this holiday season, there’s something else you should add to your to-do list: making sure you’re up-to-date on the latest guidance around COVID-19, the flu, and RSV, as respiratory disease season hits full swing.“It's always important to factor in the possibility of either transmitting an infection to other people or becoming infected, especially when getting together in large groups,” says Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic. “There are ways to safely gather and enjoy the holiday season,” but it requires taking the right precautions.Here’s what to know about—and how to say safe from—COVID, the flu, and RSV this holiday season.Will there be a COVID-19 surge this winter? What about flu and RSV...

November 15, 2023 3:55 AM ESTThey’re a global nightmare. First they haunted Paris last month, before panic over potential outbreaks gripped Europe and the U.S. Now, bedbugs are terrifying a number of countries in Asia, where surges in infestations of the pest are fueling fresh anxieties among the public and stirring governments to action.Read More: Bed Bugs Aren’t Just a Problem in Paris. Here’s WhySince the start of November, South Korea has embarked on a fierce campaign against the bloodsucking critters. Bedbugs had been largely eradicated there during a national extermination drive in the 1960s, but the country is now experiencing a worrying revival in cases. Besides the establishment of an interministry task force dedicated to tackling bedbugs, both national and regional governments ki...

The health outlook for Long COVID sufferers is no better today than it was when the condition was first recognized in early 2020. This has been attributed in large measure to the disappointing results of clinical research, particularly when compared to the magnitude of the problem. Now with hundreds of published results emerging from federally conducted or sponsored research, outraged experts and patient advocates say that there is little to show for it. The critique is that the pace of the work is slow and opaque, and that little has emerged that directly impacts prevention or patient care. The biomedical community has been under steady attack for lack of progress in prevention and treatment underlying a failure to help patients.There is a lot at stake in getting the U.S.’s Long COVID res...

COVID-19 has become less of an urgent threat than it was in 2019 largely because of vaccines and growing immunity from natural infections, but antiviral treatments have also changed the course of the disease. The most popular of these is nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, sold under the brand name Paxlovid, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends for older people and anyone over age 12 who is at higher risk of COVID-19 complications. But people taking the drug have reported incomplete recovery, or testing positive again after testing negative once they finished the five-day course of the oral medication.In a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers led by Dr. Mark Siedner, at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, investiga...

U.S. women are now projected to live about six years longer than U.S. men, as COVID-19 and drug overdoses claim more male than female lives, according to research published Nov. 13 in JAMA Internal Medicine.Overall U.S. life expectancy has declined in recent years and, as of the latest estimate, sits at around 76 years. But as the new research details, women are expected to live significantly longer than men. As of 2021, the latest year with federal data available, life expectancy among U.S. men was 73.5 years, compared to 79.3 years among women.Across the world, women tend to live longer than men for a variety of reasons, some biological—such as hormonal differences—and some behavioral. Women tend to visit doctors more frequently and are less likely to smoke and drink excessively, for exa...

Popular weight loss drugs have dominated news headlines and social media, mostly for their ability to help people shed pounds and control diabetes. But now there is evidence that one of the drugs, semaglutide, can also help reduce the risk of dying from heart disease in some patients. The drug semaglutide is sold under the brand names Wegovy, Ozempic, and Rybelsus. This trial, however, only studied the effects of Wegovy, which is semaglutide at 2.4mg in injectable form, and currently approved for weight management. The results of a much-anticipated study, sponsored by semaglutide’s maker Novo Nordisk, investigating the drug’s effects on the heart were presented at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Philadelphia and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.The s...