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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

U.S. Refuses to Block Price Hike for AIDS Drug

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has refused a request by AIDS activists to block a drugmaker's move to quintuple the price of a leading antiviral drug.

Patient groups had petitioned the agency to authorize generic competition for Norvir, arguing that the Abbott Laboratories drug had become too expensive and had been partially developed with taxpayer money, the Gannett News Service reported. Last year, the company announced it was raising the cost of a daily dose to $8.57 from $1.71.

In announcing its decision not to intervene, the NIH insisted that Congress must address the larger issue of spiraling drug costs, the news service said. The agency said it didn't matter that Abbott had received about $3.5 million in federal funds to develop Norvir, at a total cost of more than $300 million.

NIH rejected the activists' claim that the matter fell under a 1980 law co-written by former Indiana Sen. Birch Bayh. The statute allows the government to end a company's exclusive patent on a drug if such a move would benefit the immediate health and safety needs of Americans, the news service report said.

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Conjoined Twins Successfully Separated

Formerly conjoined twins Carl and Clarence Aguirre spent their first night in different beds early Thursday following more than 17 hours of surgery at a New York City hospital to separate them.

Doctors pronounced the twins "strong and stable," according to the Associated Press.

The 27-month-old Filipino boys will need additional reconstructive surgery on the tops of their heads, where they had been joined since birth. Wednesday's procedure at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx was the fourth in a series of operations designed to spare the twins the trauma of a single, multi-day surgery.

The most delicate part of the final separation procedure was dividing a major vein the twins shared, reported the New York Times. The earlier operations involved separating a tangled web of more minor veins and delicately stretching tissue under the twins' scalps.

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USDA Revises Standards on Mad Cow Announcements

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it will no longer announce possible cases of mad cow disease among American cattle until additional preliminary tests are used to indicate a potential positive result, according to the Associated Press.

The move comes after recent instances in which the USDA used a lone screening test to identify two possible cases of the brain-wasting disease, only to have those cases prove negative after more sophisticated testing.

But the uncertainly that stemmed from the potential cases alone was enough to have other countries temporarily ban imports of U.S. beef and create doubt among American consumers.

The USDA said the new standards, which took effect Wednesday, will require three samples of tissue. Only if two or more preliminary tests yielded potential positives would the results be announced, the AP reported.

The U.S. has had only a single confirmed case of mad cow, found last December in a Washington state Holstein.

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FDA Gives Nod to New Antidepressant

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Eli Lilly's Cymbalta (duloxetine), a new adult antidepressant.

Cymbalta belongs to a newer class of antidepressants that target norepinephrine and serotonin, two brain chemicals associated with depression.

It's the first antidepressant to be approved for sale in the United States since the FDA started to investigate whether antidepressants may increase the risk of suicide, according to the Associated Press.

Cymbalta initially wasn't part of the investigation, but it gained attention in February when a college student taking part in clinical studies of the drug hanged herself at the research facility. Lilly has insisted there's no evidence that the drug was to blame, the AP reported.

The FDA approved Cymbalta for treatment of major depression for up to nine weeks. As with similar medications, the drug will carry a label warning doctors and caregivers that patients should be closely monitored when they start taking Cymbalta or change doses.

Cymbalta should be on pharmacy shelves later this month.

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Brain Pacemaker May Help Treat Mental Illness

An implanted brain pacemaker that may prove effective in treating mental illness, including depression, is being tested by researchers at Butler Hospital in Providence, R.I.

The study, which includes 10 patients with severe obsessive compulsive disorder, is the largest to date of the brain stimulator's effectiveness in treating mental illness, the Boston Globe reported.

Brain stimulators are widely used in people with Parkinson's disease, but are still experimental for treatment of psychiatric disorders.

Electrodes that deliver stimulation are placed in precise locations in the brain. These electrodes are attached by wires to two small battery-powered pulse generators implanted in the chest.

It's believed that the pulses delivered by the electrodes impede bad signals passing through malfunctioning brain circuits.

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More Money Needed to Eradicate Polio

Polio can be eradicated worldwide by the end of 2004 as long as there's enough money to continue vaccination campaigns, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO plans to run national polio immunization projects in 22 African countries between now and the end of the year, and vaccination campaigns are continuing in South Asia, BBC News Online reported.

But there's a glitch. The vaccination programs face a funding shortfall of close to several hundred million dollars. Unless there are more donations made soon, some of the programs may have to be cancelled.

The polio eradication initiative began in 1988 and achieved some remarkable successes in the early years. However, it's becoming difficult to complete the effort.

If polio is not eradicated, it could re-emerge as a major global disease, experts fear.

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