Novartis Told to Stop Selling IBS Drug in Switzerland
Drug maker Novartis AG was told Thursday to withdraw a drug for irritable bowel syndrome from the market in Switzerland, the Associated Press reported.
Swissmedic, the agency that regulates pharmaceuticals, said Thursday it ordered the drug Zelmac off the market after a new analysis of data from clinical trials showed the drug was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular problems, such as angina and heart attack.
A statement released by Novartis said the company was surprised and disappointed by Swissmedic's decision, the AP reported.
Novartis withdrew the same drug, sold under the name Zelnorm, from the U.S market in March at the request of the Food and Drug Administration.
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Chocolate, Berry Chemical Boosts Memory
The chemical epicatechin -- found in foods such as grapes, chocolate, blueberries and tea -- helped boost the memory of mice, according to a Salk Institute study in the Journal of Neuroscience.
The researchers also found that mice who were fed a diet supplemented with epicatechin appeared to have greater blood vessel growth in certain parts of their brain. The findings suggest that epicatechin improves blood flow in the brain, especially when combined with exercise, BBC News reported.
"A logical next step will be to study the effects of epicatechin on memory and brain blood flow in aged animals -- and then humans, combined with mild exercise," said study leader Dr. Henriette van Praag.
"This is an important advance because it identifies a single natural chemical with memory-enhancing effects, suggesting it may be possible to optimize brain function by combining exercise and dietary supplementation," said Dr. Mark Mattson of the U.S. National Institute on Aging, BBC News reported.
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Experts Offer Tips on Preventing Eye Infections
In response to a recent outbreak of serious eye infections in contact lens wearers, the American Academy of Ophthalmology is offering advice on how to prevent eye infections.
The tips include:
- Stop using the product -- Complete MoisturePlus by Advanced Medical Optics -- implicated in the recent eye infection cases. Discard contact lenses that have been stored in the solution and the cases used to store those lenses.
- Consult your eye care professional to discuss the use of an appropriate alternative contact lens solution.
- Wash hands with soap and water and dry your hands before handling contact lenses.
- Don't use tap water to rinse contact lenses.
- Each time you clean your lenses, fill the contact case with fresh solution. Never reuse old solution or top off old solution in the storage case.
- Don't transfer contact lens solution from its original container to anything other than storage cases.
- Remove your lenses and consult with an eye professional if you experience symptoms such as redness, pain, tearing, increased light sensitivity, blurry vision, discharge, or swelling.
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Concussions Linked to Depression in Retired Pro Football Players
There's a strong association between depression in former National Football League players and the number of concussions they suffered while playing, say University of North Carolina researchers who surveyed 2,552 retired NFL players.
They found that of the 595 players who reported sustaining three more football-related concussions, 20.2 percent had been diagnosed with depression. That's three times the rate of players who did not suffer a concussion, The New York Times reported.
The findings, by researchers at the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes, will be published in the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.
The authors said their study "calls into question how effectively retired professional football players with a history of three or more concussions are able to meet the mental and physical demands of life after playing football."
The NFL has consistently denied that football-related concussion have any long-term effects. However, the league last week announced new guidelines regarding concussions, The Times reported.
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Cancers May be Third Wave of 9/11-Linked Illnesses
A "third wave" of serious illnesses such as blood and lymphatic cancers caused by exposure to asbestos, dioxins and other carcinogens may strike responders to the World Trade Center terror attacks, say Mount Sinai Medical Center doctors.
Dr. Robin Herbert said she and her colleagues at Sinai's World Trade Center medical monitoring program are now seeing unusual cases of plasma-cell cancers in Ground Zero workers, the New York Daily News reported.
"We know we have a handful of cases of multiple myeloma in very young individuals, and multiple myeloma is a condition that almost always presents later in life, so that's the kind of odd, unusual and troubling finding that we're seeing already," Herbert said in an online audio interview conducted in advance of today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the journal, Herbert outlines three waves of post 9/11 health problems in responders, the Daily News reported.
The first was the persistent, dry "World Trade Center cough" caused by exposure to pulverized cement. It appeared in the months after the terror attacks. The second wave involves chronic respiratory diseases that result in lung inflammation and scarring. Cancers may be the third wave.
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FDA Denies Fast-Track Status for Cervarix HPV Vaccine
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not grant a priority review to the experimental cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix, drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC said Thursday.
As a result of being denied fast-track status that would have sped up the approval and marketing of Cervarix in the U.S., the vaccine will have to go through a standard 10-month review, the Associated Press reported.
The FDA decision means that Cervarix will likely be available in the U.S. sometime in 2008, Glaxo said. The vaccine, which protects against strains of the cancer-causing human papilloma virus (HPV), was approved in Australia earlier this month and Glaxo expects to introduce the vaccine in Europe and several other markets later this year.
The FDA grants a priority review to medicines considered to be a significant improvement compared to existing treatments, the AP reported.
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