[amenews] Medical practices generally earn less giving a single shot that protects against five diseases than injecting component immunizations separately, even though the same amount of counseling time is often required for combination shots as single vaccinations, according to a study.

[WSJ] After an Israeli biotech company stopped working on a promising medication, two U.S. families took an unusual step: They bought the drug and decided to develop it themselves as a possible treatment for their children’s muscular dystrophy.
The Secklers, of Stockbridge, Mass., and the Wicka family, from Minneapolis, are hoping the experimental compound, called halofuginone, [...]

[washingtonpost] Physicians and the federal government cited the case of a San Francisco Bay area man who has fathered 14 children as an example of the risks posed by the informal market for sperm donations, which doctors consider unsafe but some people call a civil liberties issue.
Trent Arsenault, 36, of Fremont offers his sperm for [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues today issued its report concerning federally-sponsored research involving human volunteers, concluding that current rules and regulations provide adequate safeguards to mitigate risk.  In its report, “Moral Science: Protecting Participants in Human Subjects Research,” the Commission also recommended 14 changes to current practices to [...]

[AmedNews] U.S. Supreme Court justices in December heard oral arguments in two high-profile patent cases that could have widespread effects on patients who need certain drugs.
In Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories Inc., the high court is weighing whether a test that measures patients’ metabolite levels to determine drug dosages should be patentable. Prometheus sued [...]

[The Wall Street Journal] European Union leaders are gathered in Brussels for yet another emergency summit, this time to consider a Franco-German plan for fiscal union. After each previous try to stop the bleeding in the past 18 months, markets saw through the palliative and drove up debt costs.
Yet the fog of crisis obscures what’s already [...]

[Edmonton Journal] The medical benefits of stem cells may lie in their “healing juice” by-products, says an University of Alberta pediatric asthma researcher.
Dr. Bernard Thébaud believes the by-products of mesenchymal stem cells — found in umbilical cord tissue and with known anti-inflammatory characteristics — could possibly heal lungs inflamed by chronic [...]

[PharmaPro] TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Price gouging on prescription drugs already in short supply would become a federal crime under legislation about to be introduced.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said he’s proposing a bill that that would give the U.S. Department of Justice authority to crack down on “unscrupulous drug distributors” [...]

[Zocalopublicsquare] Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could [...]

[PharmaPro] Birth control drugs that were heavily promoted as having fewer side effects and the ability to clear up acne and other hormonal bothers are under new scrutiny from U.S. safety regulators.
Research suggesting that newer birth control formulations are more likely to cause blood clots than older drugs has prompted the [...]