Reuters - Health Report

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Friday, December 22, 2017

Boston-area paramedics on front lines of U.S. opioid crisis

(Reuters) - The paramedics find them everywhere - slumped over car steering wheels, barely breathing in doughnut shop bathrooms or dead in derelict apartments and expensive mansions.

Roche to buy U.S. cancer drugmaker Ignyta for $1.7 billion

(Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Roche will buy U.S. cancer drug specialist Ignyta Inc for $1.7 billion in an agreed deal to broaden its oncology portfolio, the firms said on Friday.

Obamacare enrollment down only slightly after late surge in demand

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Slightly fewer Americans have enrolled for insurance through the federal Obamacare marketplace compared to a year ago, the government said on Thursday, but the number was higher than expected in light of steps taken by President Donald Trump and Congress to undermine the 2010 law.

Novartis combo therapy for melanoma gets FDA priority review

ZURICH (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted priority review for Novartis's Tafinlar in combination with Mekinist for treating some patients with advanced melanoma, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday.

Opioid crisis trims U.S. life expectancy, boosts hepatitis C: CDC

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The opioid crisis is rippling through the U.S. healthcare system, causing a spike in rates of hepatitis C related to increased opioid injections and reducing overall life expectancy among Americans, which has fallen for the second year in a row, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.

Second U.S. judge blocks Trump administration birth control rules

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A second U.S. judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump's administration from enforcing new rules that undermine an Obamacare requirement for employers to provide insurance that covers women's birth control.

Nature and nurture contribute equally to depression risk

(Reuters Health) - - For the first time, researchers have found that the environment you’re raised in is as important as your genes in determining risk for major depression.

Why a walk in the park beats a stroll on the street

(Reuters Health) - - Older adults who take a daily constitutional may want to avoid traffic-jammed city streets and head to a park instead because polluted air diminishes the benefits of exercise, a UK study suggests.

FDA approves La Jolla's low blood pressure drug

(Reuters) - La Jolla Pharmaceutical said on Thursday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved its drug, Giapreza, to treat dangerously low blood pressure.

North Carolina accuses drugmaker Insys of scheme to push opioid

BOSTON (Reuters) - North Carolina sued Insys Therapeutics Inc on Thursday, accusing the pharmaceutical company of illegally pushing a powerful fentanyl-based cancer pain medicine called Subsys to boost profits amid the U.S. opioid epidemic.