Uninsured RX

Over the past 3 decades, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI, or balloon angioplasty) has significantly changed the treatment of coronary artery disease (narrowing of the arteries supplying the heart muscle). Unlike the more invasive coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, angioplasty is a nonsurgical procedure in which a tiny catheter with a balloon is inserted into the coronary artery. The balloon is then inflated to push aside the plaque causing the narrowing. [click link for full article]

After five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor have been sentenced to death by a Libyan court for allegedly infecting about 400 children with HIV on purpose, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner for Foreign Relations and Neighborhood Policy has urged Libya to recall the sentences.Benita Ferrero-Waldner wrote to the European Affairs Secretary, Libya, urging him to annul the death sentences, according to the Sofia News Agency, Bulgaria. [click link for full article]

Canada’s New Government is one step closer to finalizing compensation to individuals infected with hepatitis C from the blood system prior to January 1, 1986, and after July 1, 1990.The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Health, said today that the federal government and plaintiffs’ counsel have concluded the final settlement agreement which will now proceed to the Courts for scrutiny and approval. [click link for full article]

Health Canada is advising consumers not to use a product called Eden Herbal Formulations Sleep Ease Dietary Supplement, because it was found to contain an undeclared drug estazolam, which can be habit-forming when used for as little as a few months. Consumers who may still have this product in their homes are advised to consult with a health care professional before they stop taking the capsules, because of the risk of withdrawal symptoms. [click link for full article]

The first edition of Pharmacy Now, a new e-newsletter targeted at Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain members in England, has been published on the Society's website. Pharmacy Now will bring news and views from the Society in an easy to read format designed to appeal to busy pharmacists and will complement the existing Society publications produced for pharmacy audiences in Scotland and Wales. [click link for full article]

At its meeting on Wednesday 6 December 2006, the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) agreed to commission an independent review to examine the principles around how the RPSGB’s professional and regulatory functions might be separated in response to the clarification sought by the Foster review of non-medical healthcare regulation. [click link for full article]

Darwin probably never envisaged that, 150 years after 'Origin of the Species' was published, scientists would be adapting his ideas to improve drug design, but new research from the University of Leeds is doing just that.Enzymologist Alan Berry and chemist Adam Nelson used 'directed evolution' to adapt a natural enzyme to make analogues of the anti-flu drug, Relenza(TM). [click link for full article]

Researchers at the University of Southampton have built a prototype of a prosthetic hand with some of the functionality and movement of a real one. [click link for full article]

Medical Services International Inc. (Pinksheets: MSITF) is pleased to announce that it has completed additional testing of its VScan HIV test kit with the National Institute For Communicable Diseases. The regulatory agency tested 500 VScan HIV test kits with the following test results: Sensitivity- 100%, Specificity- 100%. It is very rare for a test kit to test with such accuracy. [click link for full article]

Right now there's no rapid way to diagnose sepsis, a fast-moving blood infection that is a leading cause of death in hospital intensive care units. The illness unleashes a powerful inflammatory response that can quickly overwhelm the body, causing organ failure and death, often within days. [click link for full article]