Health Headlines - August 30

Heart Attack Patient Recovers After Bone Marrow Stem Cell Treatment

A 61-year-old Japanese heart attack patient whose only chance of survival appeared to be a heart transplant, has recovered without one because doctors used stem cells from his own bone marrow to treat him.

According to the Knight Ridder Tribune news service, the procedure, which doctors at Saitama Medical Hospital in Kawagoe, Japan, believe to be the first of its kind, took place over a period of months while the patient remained connected to an external artificial heart. The bone marrow stem cell treatment allowed the patient's heart to regain sufficient strength to operate without assistance, the news service reported.

The wire service quotes Dr. Shunei Kyo as saying at a press conference that the patient first suffered the heart attack on Feb. 3, and that his age and other factors made him unsuitable for the heart transplant. Instead, the decision was made to begin the stem cell treatment, which called for bone marrow cells to be extracted and then transplanted into the damaged ventricle of the heart.

Researchers at Saitama Medical Hospital have been involved in regenerative tissue research for some time, the Knight Ridder Tribune news service reported, but officials there couldn't explain why the bone marrow treatment was so effective.

The patient's heart became strong enough to pump on its own by June 30, Kyo told the news service. "I believe that we've established a treatment that is safe and side-effect free," the news service quote Kyo as saying. "The treatment will save patients who are unsuitable for transplants. We intend to use this treatment in clinical practice."

1,000 Lawsuits Filed Against OxyContin Maker

Because a New York state judge refused to accept a class-action suit, about 1,000 individual lawsuits were filed Friday in New York City against the manufacturer of the controversial pain drug OxyContin.

The Associated Press reports that 14 cartons containing the legal papers were dropped off at the State court house in Staten Island, and that it took court employees four hours just to establish the processing procedure.

The reason that the cases have to be tried individually is that the hearing judge decided that too many of them had different injury claims and different evidence requirements. Oxycontin, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1995, is a powerful painkiller, often used in cancer cases.

But it is also powerfully addictive, something the plaintiffs claim the drug's manufacturer, Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., failed to point out to patients and doctors when it marketed the drug.

These lawsuits are the latest in a series of thousands that have been filed against Purdue Pharma in the United States. According to AP, the company has never lost an OxyContin lawsuit, but there was a settlement with the West Virginia attorney general's office in November 2004.

New Government Rules Restrict Scientists' Consulting

Scientists employed by the U.S. government will no longer be allowed unlimited access to consult for private companies.

According to The New York Times, this re-emphasis of the importance of independent and impartial scientific medical research grew out of an investigation by officials at the National Institutes of Health.

According to the Times, the investigation found that 44 of the NIH's 1,200 senior scientists appeared to have violated rules governing consulting, and that nine might have violated criminal laws.

Most of the investigation centered on the relationship between government scientists and pharmaceutical companies, the newspaper said. Some government scientists apparently used their position to get consulting contracts with drug companies, and these relationships could cause conflict between government duties and private consulting.

The government probe was first reported in an investigative article by the Los Angeles Times.

While the new rules establish limits on the relationships between government scientists and the medical industry, they don't ban them entirely. The Times quotes Dr. Sidney Wolfe, of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, as saying that the new rules still allow government scientists to give medical education lectures paid for by drug companies.

"These rules by no means end the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on N.I.H. employees," said Wolfe.

FDA Delays Decision on 'Morning-After' Pill

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has delayed for 60 days its long-awaited decision on whether to allow over-the-counter sales of the Plan B contraceptive pill, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Plan B, often called the "morning-after" pill, can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

In delaying its decision, the FDA said it was comfortable allowing over-the-counter sales to adults 18 and older, but wanted more time to decide how to keep it out of the hands of young teenagers, the AP said.

Plan B maker Barr Pharmaceuticals criticized the delay, saying scientific evidence supported non-prescription sales, the wire service said.

Merck May Settle Some Vioxx Lawsuits: Report

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck may be settling some of the many lawsuits that have been filed over Vioxx, the arthritis painkiller that has been shown to raise the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

In what appears to be a possible reversal of strategy, the company's general counsel, Kenneth C. Frazier, suggested in an interview with The New York Times that Merck would consider settling suits brought by people who took Vioxx for long periods of time and had few risk factors for heart disease.

Almost 5,000 Vioxx suits have already been filed, and in the first one to go to trial, Merck was found liable last week for the death of a Texas man who had taken the drug for eight months. Merck was ordered to pay $253 million to the man's widow.

Merck had previously said it planned to defend every personal-injury lawsuit filed over Vioxx. While Frazier denied that the company had made any change in its position, the Times quoted him as saying, "We would look at the facts of the case and make reasonable decisions."

Cases where settlements might be possible represent only a small fraction of all the lawsuits filed against Merck, Frazier added, noting the company does not plan to offer plaintiffs' lawyers an overall settlement of all the suits.

Last week's award was among the highest ever given to an individual plaintiff, although Texas law will automatically reduce it to about $26 million and Merck has said it will appeal.

Merck stopped selling Vioxx, part of a class of medicines called cox-2 inhibitors, last year after a clinical trial showed that patients taking the drug for more than 18 months had a substantially higher risk of heart attack and stroke than people taking a placebo. Other trials have shown that Vioxx raises heart risks over a shorter period of time compared with a placebo or with naproxen, an older painkiller.

Bextra, another cox-2 drug that is made by Pfizer Inc., has been withdrawn from the market because of cardiovascular risks.

Food Fact:
Go mango.

Nature packs a lot of vitamins A and C into these low-calorie appetizers. Half a medium-sized mango supplies 40% of the vitamin A and 50% of the vitamin C that most of us need daily. All for a mere 67 calories. And it tastes great!

Fitness Tip of the day:
Don't just stand -- stretch!

It's easy to fit stretching into your day; try these 3 tips. Practice some stretches while waiting in shopping lines. Simple neck and shoulder rolls are a great way to release stress and relax tight muscles. And make use of the stairs -- a great tool for stretching out your calves. How important is it to stretch? The American College of Sports Medicine has added stretching to its fitness recommendations.

FAQ of the day:
Is it true grapefruit juice and prescription medications don't mix?

Amazingly, grapefruit juice can interfere with some prescription medications. Grapefruit and its juice contains a phytochemical that inhibits the enzyme needed to break down antihistamines, calcium-channel blockers, immunosuppressants, sedatives and protease inhibitors (treatments for AIDS), among others. As a result, blood levels of those drugs stay higher than expected, with potentially serious side effects. If you drink grapefruit juice regularly and are prescribed medication, mention it to your health care provider.