Clare True had autism and periodic seizures, but nothing prepared her family for Christmas Eve in 2006, when the 26-year-old went to bed after watching a movie and stopped breathing.“I got home from a party, went to check on her just after midnight, and she was — she was gone,” said her mother, Jane

Time-lapse photography has shown that embryos of smoking women develop more slowly.French academics in an IVF clinic took regular pictures of an egg from the moment it was fertilised until it was ready to be implanted into the mother.At all stages of development, embryos from smokers were consistent

More rationing of care and charging for services in the NHS need to be considered as it faces at least a decade of austerity, experts say.The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the coming years will be the toughest since the early 1950s when dental and prescription fees were introduced.Other measures

To learn how best to prescribe powerful drugs to children, Congress passed a law in the 1990s that rewarded drug makers for conducting clinical studies involving children. Among the incentives for cooperating companies was a possible six-month extension of protection from generic competition after a

Merck, the second-biggest U.S. drugmaker, on Wednesday said outside monitors recommended that its late-stage study of odanacatib, a new type of treatment, be stopped early because data has already shown it reduces fractures. Shares of Merck rose 4.2 percent on Thursday, on boosted hopes for the medi

(Reuters) – At an ill-fated press conference in 1984, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler boldly predicted an effective AIDS vaccine would be available within just two years.But a string of failed attempts – punctuated by a 2007 trial in which a Merck vaccine appeared to make p

(Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline is holding talks this weekend with Human Genome Sciences to agree a deal to acquire it for some $2.6 billion, after pursuing the U.S. biotech company for three months, sources familiar with the situation said on Sunday.The British pharmaceutical giant could sweeten its pr

WASHINGTON — A wide-ranging surveillance operation by the Food and Drug Administration against a group of its own scientists used an enemies list of sorts as it secretly captured thousands of e-mails that the disgruntled scientists sent privately to members of Congress, lawyers, labor officials, jou

Two days after Debra Demidon underwent in vitro fertilization, she gained more than 30 pounds in fluid and suddenly was struggling to breathe.Doctors diagnosed severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), a complication seen in some women who undergo fertility treatment. It landed Ms. Demidon in

All two to 17-year-olds in the UK are to be offered annual flu vaccinations.If 30% take up the offer, there will be 11,000 fewer hospitalisations and 2,000 fewer deaths each year, the chief medical officer for England says.The children will be immunised using a nasal spray rather than an injection,