| WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health experts on Thursday brushed off lingering safety questions about a popular inhaler drug and suggested it carry bolder benefit claims.
ATLANTA (The New York Times News Service) -- Esther Notrica dreads this time of year when she must review dozens of Medicare prescription drug plans to figure out which one works best for her.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health officials said Tuesday a popular variety of heartburn medications can interfere with the blood thinner Plavix, a drug taken by millions of Americans to reduce risks of heart attack and stroke.
ORLANDO (USA TODAY) -- It isn't often that a study involving a couple of hundred people shakes up medical science.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- A new study raises fresh concerns about Zetia and its cousin, Vytorin -- drugs still taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol, despite questions raised last year about how well they work.
(Boston Herald) -- Leslie Cook was losing control of her life one cigarette at time, 20 cigarettes a day.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health regulators have found tiny particles of trash in drugs made by biotechnology firm Genzyme.
(Associated Press) -- Analysis of a dozen published studies testing possible new uses for a Pfizer Inc. epilepsy drug found that reporting of the results was often misleading, indicating the medicine worked better than internal company documents showed.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization says doctors shouldn't wait for lab confirmation before giving anti-viral drugs to pregnant women and other at-risk groups with suspected swine flu.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have found no cures from alternative medicine. Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by more than a third of all Americans. This is one in an occasional Associated Press series on their use and potential risks.
SAN FRANCISCO (The New York Times News Service) -- As back pain has become an increasingly common ailment in the United States -- and for chronic sufferers, one of the most debilitating -- desperate patients and their doctors have propelled major advancements in the field.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- The Food and Drug Administration is investigating companies nationwide that are advertising and selling unauthorized H1N1 products.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Last year pharmaceutical companies spent more than $4 billion urging patients like you to "ask your doctor" about their drugs. But if you want a prescription that won't empty your wallet, while still keeping you well, you might start asking your doctor about drugs you don't see on TV.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Researchers studying antibiotics in pregnancy have found a surprising link between common drugs used to treat urinary infections and birth defects. Reassuringly, the most-used antibiotics in early pregnancy - penicillins - appear to be the safest.
MILWAUKEE (Canadian Press) -- Men may protect more than their hearts if they keep cholesterol in line: Their chances of getting aggressive prostate cancer may be lower, new research suggests.
LONDON (AP) -- To fight pneumonia, the world's top killer of children, United Nations officials say they need $39 billion (euro26.35 billion) over the next six years.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Independent health advisers begin monitoring safety of the swine flu vaccine on Monday, an extra step the government promised in this year's unprecedented program to watch for possible side effects.
DENVER (The New York Times News Service) -- It seemed to Margie McCandless that she was destined to have diabetes.
(Associated Press) -- Doctors may have a new treatment for swine flu that's already on pharmacy shelves -- cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Lipitor and Zocor.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Medicare officials are backing off a policy that pushed many doctors to use a $2,000 injectable drug for a potentially blinding eye disorder, over a similar treatment that costs about $50.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Children on widely used psychiatric drugs can quickly gain an alarming amount of weight; many pack on nearly 20 pounds and become obese within just 11 weeks, a study found.
BEIJING (AP) -- China will give swine flu vaccinations to thousands of Muslims about to make the annual pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, state media said, as authorities reported the mainland's third death from the illness.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In an Oct. 21 story about drug labels, The Associated Press erroneously described the Novartis drug Zometa. Zometa was approved in 2001 to treat excessive calcium levels, not to treat a form of osteoporosis in cancer patients. Also, the drug was approved only in a 4 milligram dose, not in both 4 milligram and 8 milligram doses. A corrected version of the story appears below.
BERLIN (AP) -- A debate over two different swine flu vaccines overshadowed Germany's launch of a public inoculation program against the pandemic on Monday.
TAMPA (The New York Times News Service) -- The University of South Florida is participating in two national studies to find out whether the H1N1 vaccine can protect children and pregnant women who have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, from also contracting swine flu.
(Associated Press) EDITOR'S NOTE: Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have found no cures from alternative medicine. Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by more than a third of all Americans. This is one in an occasional series examining their use and potential risks.
ENCINO (The New York Times News Service) -- Hundreds of people came from as far away as San Diego Friday to stand in long lines for swine flu vaccine at the Balboa Sports Complex -- one of the first of 64 free clinics that will open over the next three weeks in Los Angeles County's largest ever vaccination campaign.
(Associated Press) -- What to do if menopause makes you miserable?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration has allowed drugs for cancer and other diseases to stay on the market even when follow-up studies showed they didn't extend patients' lives, say congressional investigators.
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Grappling with low supplies of swine flu vaccines, President Felipe Calderon persuaded drug makers this week to sell him 30 million doses, while 1,000 Mexicans lined up for an experimental vaccine they hope can speed up supplies.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Did you know that Lunesta will help you fall asleep just 15 minutes faster? Or that a higher dose of the osteoporosis drug Zometa could damage a cancer patient's kidneys and raise their risk of death?
(Associated Press) -- Federal officials have warned promoters of more than 140 products sold over the Internet about fraudulent claims that they can prevent, treat or diagnose swine flu.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government now hopes to have about 50 million doses of swine flu vaccine out by mid-November and 150 million in December.
SWIFTWATER, Pa. (AP) -- The federal government originally promised 120 million doses of swine flu vaccine by now. Only 13 million have come through.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Most hospitalized heart failure patients are sent home without widely recommended inexpensive pills, despite a program to get more doctors to follow treatment guidelines, a study suggests.
(Associated Press) -- Fresh results from the world's first successful test of an experimental AIDS vaccine confirm that it is only marginally effective and suggest that its protection against HIV infection may wane over time.
WASHINGTON (AP)-- The people who most want the swine flu vaccine are older people, who will be last in line, says a new Associated Press-GfK poll.
ATLANTA (AP) -- The initial swine flu vaccine doses this week will be the nasal spray version, and arm injections will begin next week to help meet demand, health officials said Tuesday.
(USA TODAY) -- The first doses of swine flu vaccine arrived Monday as more than half the USA reported widespread flu cases.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Vaccine-like shots to keep cocaine abusers from getting high also helped them fight their addiction in the first successful rigorous study of this approach to treating illicit drug use.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The long-awaited first vaccinations against swine flu -- the squirt-in-the-nose kind -- begin early next week in parts of the country, and states are urging people to be patient until more arrives.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators said Thursday an experimental kidney cancer drug from GlaxoSmithKline may cause liver problems, potentially outweighing its ability to slow the disease.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Drug-related deaths outnumber those from motor vehicle accidents in a growing number of states, according to new government data that highlight a shift in the top cause of deaths after disease and illness.
(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services) -- When the first shipments of swine flu vaccine begin arriving in coming weeks, federal officials want only people on priority lists to line up for the first 45 million doses, but there won't be "vaccine police" enforcing it.
CHICAGO (AP) -- More than half a million U.S. children yearly have bad reactions or side effects from widely used medicines that require medical treatment and sometimes hospitalization, new research shows.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Adults with a common form of leukemia had a better chance of remission if they got a double dose of a long-used cancer drug, two new studies found.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Some pharmacists are seeing a shortage of the children's version of the flu drug Tamiflu.
LONDON (AP) -- People with a genetic susceptibility to colon cancer could cut their chances of developing the disease in half by taking a daily dose of aspirin, researchers said Monday.
ATLANTA (AP) -- One in three teenage girls have rolled up their sleeves for a vaccine against cervical cancer, but vaccination rates vary dramatically between states, according to a federal report released Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attention is shifting to the world's five leading flu vaccine makers: How fast are they really producing swine flu vaccine, and just how do they plan to test that it works?
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