WASHINGTON — It would seem a business executive’s dream: legally pay a competitor to keep its product off the market for years.Congress has failed to stop it, and for more than a decade generic drug makers and big-name pharmaceutical companies have been winning court rulings that allowed it.Until th

(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) – Republican governors bent on rejecting the healthcare law’s expanded insurance coverage for millions of low-income Americans may see their gambit backfire if their party fails to sweep the November elections.Five governors have vowed to opt out of the Medicaid expansion for low-income pe

Drug-resistant HIV has been increasing in parts of sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade, according to experts writing in the Lancet.Studies on 26,000 untreated HIV-positive people in developing countries were reviewed by the team.They said resistance could build up if people fail to stick to drug

(Reuters) – Europe’s medicines regulator, criticised in the past for excessive secrecy, is opening its data vaults to systematic scrutiny in a move that will let independent researchers trawl through millions of pages of clinical trial information.The change is a landmark in transparency that puts E

(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

Watson said that the FDA improperly denied the company’s shared exclusivity on the generic version despite Watson directly following directions received from the regulator.As a result of the FDA’s decision, approval could be delayed for up to six months, Watson said.Watson planned to launch its gene

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first drug shown to reduce the risk of H.I.V. infection, a milestone in the 30-year battle against the virus that causes AIDS. The agency approved Truvada, a pill made by Gilead Sciences, as a preventive measure for people who are at high risk

(Reuters Health) – Genetically modified rice could be a good source of vitamin A for children in countries where deficiency in the vitamin is common, a new study suggests.The study tested so-called Golden Rice against both spinach and supplements in providing vitamin A to 68 six- to eight-year-olds