A group of new drugs is promising to prolong the lives and relieve the symptoms of men with advanced prostate cancer, but could also add billions of dollars to the nation
Vertex Pharmaceuticals won regulatory approval on Monday for a new hepatitis C drug, setting off a marketing battle with Merck over new drugs that are expected to improve the cure rate of the disease and shorten the duration of treatment.
Incivek, as the drug will be called, is expected to be the first big product for Vertex, and the first it will sell on its own.
A federal judge has ruled that the government failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of genetically engineered sugar beets before approving the crop for cultivation in the United States. The decision could lead to a ban on the planting of the beets, which have been widely adopted by farmers.
Two shots of measles vaccine given during childhood protect a person for life. Four shots of polio vaccine do the same. But flu shots must be taken every year. And even so, they provide less than complete protection.
Old Ways A hurdle to faster flu vaccine production is that current methods use chicken eggs to grow the virus.
Federal officials said it would take until January, or late November at the earliest, to make enough vaccine to protect all Americans from a possible epidemic of swine flu.
And beyond the United States and a few other countries that also make vaccines, some experts said it could take years to produce enough swine flu vaccine to satisfy global demand.
NEW YORK: Researchers in New York have created what is believed to be the first genetically engineered human embryo, which critics immediately branded as a step toward "designer babies." But the researchers, at Cornell University, say they used an abnormal embryo that could never have turned into a baby. "This particular piece of work was done on an embryo that was never going to be viable," said Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital. He said the purpose of the work was stem cell research.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy may not seem to have much in common with heart attacks. One is a rare inherited disease that primarily strikes boys. The other is a common cause of death in both men and women. To Dr. Atul Butte, they are surprisingly similar.
