A woman suffering from early-stage breast cancer has lost a legal battle to force her health authority to treat her with Herceptin. High court judge Mr Justice Bean ruled this morning that that Swindon primary care trust (PCT) in Wiltshire did not need to pay for Ann Marie Rogers, 54, to be treated with the drug, which can cost up to ?20,000 for one year of treatment. Read more…

Botox could be used alongside chemotherapy and radiation to fight cancer, new research has suggested. The cosmetic treatment produced by Allergan, which is normally used to smooth wrinkles, was found to destroy resistant cancer cells in tests on mice. Read more…

Health secretary Patricia Hewitt yesterday announced details of an allocation of over ?2 billion worth of capital investment in health services over the next financial year. Capital funding is used to acquire and modernise buildings, land and equipment within the NHS and can only be used to fund these aspects. Read more…

Forest Laboratories has decided to up figures for research and development (R&D) spending. The move comes as a way to include new agreements with US firms Mylan Laboratories and Replidyne. Read more…

Pliva is to buy a Spanish subsidiary from Novartis' generics division Sandoz. The Croatian firm will pay 21.5 million euros for Uso Racional (UR), a well known and established generic brand in Spain with expected sales of 12 million euros for 2006. Read more…

Studies of the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) drug Arixtra (fondaparinux sodium) have found it to be effective. Artemis (Arixtra for Thromboembolism prevention in a Medical Indications Study) found the treatment reduced the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) by 46.7 per cent. Read more…

AstraZeneca is to withdraw the anticoagulant Exanta (melagatran/ximelagatran) from the market and end its development. The venous thromboembolism (VTE) treatment has been withdrawn due to new data about the possibility of liver damage. Read more…

Cephalon has reported an increase of revenue for 2005 of 19 per cent to $1.2 billion. The firm's total sales hit $1.16 billion, a rise of 18 per cent on 2004 levels, with the biggest seller being the narcolepsy drug Provigil (modafinil) with sales of $512.8 million. However, despite these figures the company made a loss for the year of $175 million, compared with a loss of $74 million in 2004. Read more…

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has given its approval of Bonviva (ibandronic acid) for the use within NHS Scotland for the treatment of osteoporosis. The body stated that the once a month treatment was found "to significantly reduce the risk of vertebral fractures in postmenopausal women". Read more…

MPs have voted to extend a smoking ban in public places to all pubs and private clubs in England. The free vote in the House of Commons went 384 to 184 in the government's favour last night to remove the exemption of private members' clubs and establishments that serve food. MPs also voted to ban smoking in workplaces, including 106,000 licensed premises. Read more…

NewswireToday (newswire) - 05/29/2008 London, United Kingdom - ReportBuyer.com, the online destination for business intelligence for major industry sectors, added a new report showing that the U.S. market for environmental biotechnology products for waste treatment is expected to increase to $261.3 million Read more…

NewswireToday (newswire) - 05/28/2008 Boca Raton, FL United States - Nutritional Supplement Compliance Solutions, LLC, an FDA regulatory consultancy serving small to medium size dietary supplement companies, announced Certified Nutritionist Amber Needham joined the company as a consultant Read more…

NewswireToday (newswire) - 05/27/2008 San Jose, CA United States - AnaSpec has introduced the SensoLyte?™ 520 Cathepsin S Assay Kit to its broad collection of long wavelength FRET protease assay kits Read more…

NewswireToday (newswire) - 05/27/2008 Cape Town, South Africa - The Kenyan diabetes market is growing rapidly, primarily due to better diagnosis rates achieved through easier access to healthcare. Many type II diabetics in the country are also shifting towards the use of insulin along with their oral treatments Read more…

NewswireToday (newswire) - 05/27/2008 London, United Kingdom - Contracted services in the pharmaceutical industry are increasing due to challenges such as declining R&D productivity, increasing generic penetration, spiralling development costs and pipeline woes Read more…

NewswireToday (newswire) - 05/26/2008 London, United Kingdom - Report Buyer, has added a new report showing that until superior therapeutic treatments are developed to prevent, treat and cure cancer, the best means of reducing mortality is early detection and diagnosis Read more…

NewswireToday (newswire) - 05/23/2008 San Jose, CA United States - This week, AnaSpec introduced sixty (60) new catalog peptides and three (3) new assay kits Read more…

NewswireToday (newswire) - 05/22/2008 San Jose, CA United States - AnaSpec added eight (8) new antibody products to its growing collection Read more…

NewswireToday (newswire) - 05/21/2008 Bangkok, Thailand - Siam Life Science Ltd (SLS) secures exclusive License for unique Liver Cell Line from Premier U.S. Research Organization, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRI) Read more…

NewswireToday (newswire) - 05/21/2008 London, United Kingdom - Plexus Ventures announces a new assignment from US Pharmacia and Participation in the BIO 2008 International Conference Read more…