Dawn raids and bisexuality
Last updated: Friday, January 18, 2008 PrintThe raids are part of a massive investigation into whether drug companies are abusing patents and striking illegal deals that have higher than necessary drug prices as a result.
In South Africa, the Treatment Action Campaign has laid similar charges with the Competition Commission against Merck, Sharpe and Dohme's (Merck's South African subsidiary) alleged anti-competitive behaviour in the licensing of the antiretroviral drug Efavirenz.
Cholesterol drug useless
Researchers reported this week that the widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug Ezetimibe (Zetia) does not confer any medical benefit. In fact, it is associated with a slight increase in the accumulation of arterial plaque.
Whereas it is certainly disappointing to hear that millions of people are using a drug that appears to be useless, serious questions are being raised as to why it took so long for the results to be published.
There is a very strong suggestion that the results were being held back because of their possible impact on sales of the drug – according to the New York Times sales of Ezetimibe and Vytorin (a combination containing Ezetimibe) came to a total of 3.7 billion dollars in the nine months ending on September 30 2007.
In December it was announced that a US congressional committee is investigating Merck and Schering-Plough regarding their role in the study. As with the EU investigation, the fallout from this inquiry could have major implications for the industry.
Calcium may up heart risk
And still with things that many people are taking that may actually be harmful, we heard this week that calcium supplements may increase some postmenopausal women's risk of heart attack.
The increased risk may however not justify quitting calcium supplements altogether. As ever, it is best to discuss this with your doctor.
And on a different note altogether, a US Food and Drug Administration report released this week found that meat and milk from cloned animals are safe for human consumption.
Dead hearts beat again
And in what is certainly the week's most amazing story, US scientists have managed to make dead rat hearts beat again.
Having stripped rat hearts down to their collagen structure, they injected this structure with cells from newborn rats. The new hearts were fed a nutrient-rich solution and less than two weeks later the hearts were beating.
And finally, new research seems to confirm the notion that female bisexuality warrants being categorised as a distinct sexual orientation rather than being seen as just temporary or experimental. Of course, that doesn't mean one is not allowed to experiment.
- (Marcus Low, Health24)
Sources include HealthDay, Sapa, EurekAlert and Reuters Health
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January 18, 2008
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