Health News

Merck reports surging sales of vaccines and key cancer drug

Surging sales of vaccines and the cancer immunotherapy drug Keytruda led to a quadrupling of profit at Merck during the first quarter as it blew past Wall Street expectations. Sales of Keytruda jump 55% to $2.27 billion, about one-quarter of its total revenue. During the quarter, the injected biologic drug racked up U.S. approvals as […]

Health Problems

In first for EU, anti-skin cancer drug approved

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi on Friday said the European Medicines Agency had conditionally approved its anti-cancer drug Libtayo, the first drug of its kind to be authorised for use in the EU. The tumour-reducing drug is aimed at patients with the second most common form of skin cancer—cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC)—whose cancer is advanced, […]

Health Problems

FDA-approved drug effectively treats rare chronic immune disorders

A drug approved to treat a severe form of asthma dramatically improved the health of people with rare chronic immune disorders called hypereosinophilic syndromes (HES) in whom other treatments were ineffective or intolerable. This finding comes from a small clinical trial led by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part […]

Health Problems

Study explaining side effects of statins finds drug can have unexpected benefits

While investigating why cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins cause negative side effects such as blurred vision, short-term memory loss or increased risk for diabetes, cellular chemists at The University of Toledo discovered several previously unknown benefits. It is well-established statins can help lower the risk of heart attack by lowering blood cholesterol, but statins also may […]

Health Problems

Using an anti-smoking drug to control neurons

An anti-smoking drug now has a new job—as a chemical switch to turn select neurons on or off. The drug latches on to designer proteins, called ion channels, that control whether or not a neuron will send a message. By putting those proteins only in certain groups of neurons, scientists can target modulation of specific […]

Health Problems

FDA approves first immunotherapy drug for breast cancer

(HealthDay)—The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given its blessing to the first immunotherapy regimen for breast cancer. The combination of immunotherapy (Tecentriq) and chemotherapy (Abraxane) was given accelerated approval for triple-negative breast cancer that is locally advanced or has metastasized, cannot be surgically removed, and is programmed death-ligand 1-postive, CNN reported. A study published […]