Health Headlines - September 26

FDA approves Alexion's rare blood disease drug

U.S. health regulators cleared on Friday an Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc drug for adults and children with a very rare genetic disorder, as the company expands the uses of its flagship medicine.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Soliris for children and adults with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), a life-threatening genetic disease that damages vital organs and can lead to stroke, heart attack or kidney failure.

Soliris, generically known as eculizumab, is the first approved treatment for atypical HUS, one type of the rare disease that disproportionately affects children.

The drug is a targeted therapy that works by inhibiting chronic and uncontrolled activation of proteins that cause blood clots and organ damage in patients with aHUS.

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Bolivia plans to tax beer to encourage milk

Bolivia's government has a message for beer drinkers: Get milk.

The South American country's productive development minister complains that beer consumption is rising 10 percent a year while milk consumption is stable. And Teresa Morales says "Bolivians consume more beer than milk." Officials say Bolivians drink 30 liters of milk a year and 35 liters of beer.

Morales is backing a bill that imposes a small tax on beer to finance promotion of milk's benefits. other alcoholic beverages also will carry the new tax. The measure received final approval from Bolivia's congress on Friday.

Morales says the milk industry is running at just 60 percent of capacity.

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'Telemonitoring' may not help with severe asthma

A device that allows doctors to remotely monitor children with poorly controlled asthma may not help reduce serious asthma attacks, a small study finds.

The study, reported in the European Respiratory Journal, included 45 French children with poorly controlled asthma.

Researchers randomly assigned half to use a special handheld device connected to an automated modem. The children used the device each day to measure how well they could forcibly exhale, and the information was sent via phone line to the doctor.

If a child's breathing seemed to be worsening, the doctor could tell the parents to adjust their child's medication or, if the problem was serious, go to the hospital for treatment with oral corticosteroids.

The other half of the study group stayed with standard asthma treatment only, which included inhaled steroid medication to try to prevent attacks of wheezing and breathlessness.

After a year, the study found, there was no substantial difference in asthma attacks between the telemonitored children and those in the comparison group.