The Disease Control Department is seeking to ease public fears over a disease found in Thailand with HIV-like symptoms, saying it is not contagious.The disease, identified by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and reported in the New England Journal of Medicine last Thursday, has been found

Investors cheered the news, sending shares of the drugmaker soaring 50 percent to $4.59 on the Nasdaq on Friday afternoon.The Phase 2 trial, involving 121 previously treated non-small cell lung cancer patients, found that those given a lower dose of bavituximab plus chemotherapy lived for a median o

STOCKHOLM — Andemariam Beyene sat by the hospital window, the low Arctic sun on his face, and talked about the time he thought he would die.Two and a half years ago doctors in Iceland, where Mr. Beyene was studying to be an engineer, discovered a golf-ball-size tumor growing into his windpipe. Despi

(Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Novartis told India’s top court it had demonstrated the improved efficacy of its cancer drug Glivec as the final hearing began on Tuesday of a patent case that could change the rules for the country’s healthcare sector.A patent would recognize Novartis’ property rights, i

(Reuters Health) – When people with chronic health conditions have lower out-of-pocket costs for medications, they are more likely to actually fill their prescriptions, according to a new research review.The findings, reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine, sound logical. But they lend some har

Hospitals in England could be on the brink of collapse because of rising demand and the increasing complexity of patients’ conditions, doctors warn.The Royal College of Physicians’ report said the number of beds had been cut by a third over the past 25 years.It said at the same time emergency admiss

(Reuters Health) – People in developing countries with heart problems may not be able to afford new pacemakers, but a new study suggests devices removed during autopsies may have enough remaining battery life to be donated and used again.Researchers found that of 334 autopsies preformed at the Unive

The number of complaints made to the General Medical Council about doctors has risen 23% in the past year, the regulator says.The GMC report showed there were 8,781 in 2011 compared to 7,153 in 2010.The rise is similar to the one the year before and continues a trend which has seen complaints jump b

(Reuters Health) – The short-term benefits of weight loss surgery are well known in severely obese people, but a new study finds that improvements in diabetes and blood pressure may hold up for years after the procedures.At six-year patient follow-ups, three quarters of people who’d undergone gastri

(Reuters) – Scientists have grown a drug to treat a rare genetic disease inside corn plants, potentially offering a cheaper way to manufacture a treatment that currently costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for each patient.The move marks an advance for the emerging field of molecular farmi