Reuters - Health Report

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Thursday, April 6, 2017

Abortion rights activists rally at Texas Capitol against restrictions

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Hundreds of abortion rights activists rallied at the Texas Capitol on Wednesday, saying a raft of proposed legislation placing restrictions on the procedure in the most populous Republican-controlled state would endanger millions of women.

House will not reach healthcare deal before two-week break

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deep divisions cut short Republican hopes for a quick revival of Obamacare replacement legislation on Wednesday, as Congress prepared to leave town for a two-week recess without a deal to end party infighting.

Trump nominee to lead FDA questioned on ties to pharmacy industry

(Reuters) - Democratic senators questioned President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, over his ties to the pharmaceutical industry on Wednesday, with one citing "a level of discomfort" over his nomination.

Experts want special clinics to prescribe ketamine as antidepressant

LONDON (Reuters) - The party drug ketamine can have powerful beneficial effects on severely depressed patients who have struggled for years to recover, and the drug should be developed responsibly as a psychiatric medicine, British experts said on Thursday.

ABC ‘Pink Slime’ case headed for trial after appeal is rejected

CHICAGO (Reuters) - ABC Broadcasting has lost a last-ditch bid before South Dakota’s highest court to avoid a trial in a beef producer’s $5.7 billion defamation case over reports about a product that critics call "pink slime."

Allergan to move Botox into late-stage testing for depression

(Reuters) - Allergan plc said on Wednesday that its Botox blockbuster wrinkle treatment just missed achieving a significant improvement in treating depression in a mid-stage trial, but it found the data encouraging enough to move into larger Phase III testing.

Follow-up finds clot-grabbing devices offer better stroke outcomes

(Reuters Health) - - Long-term follow-up of patients in a 2014 study confirms that stroke patients recover better if doctors physically remove a clot from a blocked artery instead of just letting the clot-busting drug tPA try to do the job.

Experimental muscle-cell 'patches' may hold promise for failing hearts

(Reuters Health) - - Patching the heart with sheets of patients' own cells might improve symptoms in some cases of severe heart failure, an early study suggests.

Yo-yo dieting hikes death, heart risks in overweight heart disease patients

(Reuters Health) - - For overweight people with heart disease, trying and failing to lose weight may be more dangerous than not losing weight at all.

Medical charity MSF says treated patients for nerve agents after Syria attack

PARIS (Reuters) - Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres said on Wednesday eight people it treated following a suspected chemical attack in northern Syria had symptoms consistent with nerve agents like Sarin.