All about Children taking multiple medications, Heart benefits of fish oil

Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Monday U.S. health regulators approved its drug to treat complicated intra-abdominal infections, providing a new option to combat the growing threat from treatment-resistant bacteria.

FDA approves Tetraphase Pharma's antibiotic

Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Monday U.S. health regulators approved its drug to treat complicated intra-abdominal infections, providing a new option to combat the growing threat from treatment-resistant bacteria. Xerava, the company's lead drug, uses a technology licensed from Harvard University that helps to "revitalize" the decades-old tetracycline class of antibiotics to overcome traditional resistance mechanisms that bacteria have developed over time.

Children taking multiple medications at risk for severe reactions

Nearly one in five American children use at least one prescription medication, and roughly one in 13 kids take more than one prescription drug, according to a new study. And among the children taking more than one medication, one in 12 is at risk of a harmful drug interaction, researchers report in Pediatrics.

The Congo Republic confirms yellow fever near Angolan enclave

The Congo Republic has confirmed a case of yellow fever near the border with an Angolan enclave, the health ministry said on Tuesday, and has warned of "an emerging event of epidemic proportions". In all, 186 suspected cases have been detected this year, many of which were in the western commercial hub of Pointe Noire, the head of the government's epidemics unit Lambert Kitembo told Reuters.

Pfizer rare heart disease drug reduces the risk of death by 30 percent in the study

Pfizer Inc said on Monday that its drug tafamidis reduced the risk of death for patients with a rare and fatal heart disease by around 30 percent, boosting the prospects of what could be a billion-dollar-a-year drug. The study showed that tafamidis reduced all-cause mortality over a 30-month period in patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy to 29.5 percent, versus 42.9 percent in patients who received a placebo. It also reduced the rate of cardiovascular-related hospitalization by around 32 percent, Pfizer said.

Novartis wins EU approval for blood cancer therapy Kymriah

Novartis has received European approval for Kymriah, its gene-modifying therapy for blood cancer, but said its introduction would vary from country to country as the Swiss drugmaker works out payment details and builds manufacturing capacity. The company aims initially to use the therapy in Europe for young people up to 25 years of age with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and later for adult patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Anxiety, depression tied to higher risk of heart attack, stroke

Adults with mood disorders like anxiety and depression may be more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than people without mental illness, a new study suggests. Researchers enrolled 221,677 people age 45 and older without any history of heart attack or stroke and tracked them for an average of nearly five years.

Heart benefits of fish oil, aspirin questioned in diabetics

A new large study of fish oil and aspirin in people with diabetes has found that the oil supplements don't prevent first-time heart attacks or strokes, yet aspirin does, although the benefit of aspirin therapy is canceled out by a higher risk of unwanted bleeding. Nearly 15,500 volunteers were tested to see if either treatment made a difference. None of them had heart disease at the start of the study but all had diabetes, which typically increases the risk of cardiovascular problems two- to three-fold.

FDA proposes restricting the compounding of three drug substances

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed excluding three substances from a list of ingredients that could be used to manufacture compounded medications in bulk for use by hospitals and doctors' offices. The action was the first time the regulator has moved to exclude any substance from a list of ingredients that may be used to produce in bulk compounded medications that do not need to go through the agency's safety approval process.

UK rejects Gilead's CAR-T cancer cell therapy as too expensive

A cutting-edge CAR-T cell therapy for otherwise untreatable forms of blood cancer is too expensive to justify its use on Britain's state-funded health service, the country's healthcare cost agency NICE said on Tuesday. The decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is a blow to U.S. drugmaker Gilead Sciences, which wants to get its Yescarta product approved for use on the National Health Service (NHS).

India's health ministry calls for halting sales of e-cigarettes, smoking devices

India's federal health ministry called on Tuesday for stopping the sale or import of electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco devices that companies like Philip Morris International Inc were planning to launch in the country. India has stringent laws to deter tobacco use, which the government says kills more than 900,000 people every year. But the country still has 106 million adult smokers, second only to China according to the World Health Organization.

(With inputs from Reuters)