Medical abortions are safe: study

- Less than one percent of women getting a medication-induced abortion at Planned Parenthood had a serious side effect or a failed abortion, according to a new study. Researchers found the rate of abortion-related complications sending women to the emergency room or requiring a blood transfusion, for example, was one in 625 during 2009 and 2010. "At Planned Parenthood, medical abortion is extremely...

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U.S. food, animal groups seek lower ractopamine limits

Food safety and animal welfare groups petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday seeking limits on an animal feed additive that is the subject of concerns about human and animal health. Russia said earlier this month that it was requiring meat it imports to be tested and certified free of the feed additive ractopamine, a move jeopardizing the more than $500 million a year in exports...

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Enzon Pharma cuts more jobs, to stop drug development

Enzon Pharmaceuticals Inc said it will suspend all clinical development activities, days after the cancer drug developer decided to explore a possible sale. The company, in which activist investor Carl Icahn has a 13.29 percent stake, spent about $4 million last quarter on pipeline research and development and had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $288.7 million as of September...

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Federal appeals court rules against Hobby Lobby on contraception

A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected a claim by an arts and crafts chain that wants to be exempted from a requirement to provide emergency contraceptives to employees because it violates the religious principles of its owners. The Court of Appeals in Denver ruled against family-owned Hobby Lobby's assertion that the religious beliefs of its owners should relieve them from providing the "morning...

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China probes Yum Brands' KFC over safety of chicken products

Yum Brands Inc's fast-food chain KFC was supplied with chicken in China that contained excessive amounts of antibiotics, said food safety authorities investigating allegations of tainted KFC products. The finding by the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) deals a blow to KFC's reputation in China, where it is facing fierce competition from the likes of Taiwanese-owned fried chicken chain...

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NJ residents go home after toxic chemicals cleared

PAULSBORO, New Jersey (Reuters) - Residents of New Jersey evacuated after a freight train derailment last week spewed toxic vinyl chloride began returning home on Friday as tests of the air came back clean, a Coast Guard official said. Exactly one week after a bridge collapsed, derailing seven of the 82 Conrail freight-train cars crossing the Mantua Creek in southern New Jersey, residents who were...

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Supreme Court to hear "pay-for-delay" drug case

(Reuters) - The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether brand-name drug companies may pay money to generic drug rivals to keep their lower-priced products off the market, a practice estimated to cost consumers and the government billions of dollars each year. The arrangements, known as "pay-for-delay" or "reverse payments," have for more than a decade vexed antitrust enforcers, including...

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FDA panel opposes recommending painkiller, cites safety

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel of outside experts voted against recommending Zogenix Inc's Zohydro painkiller for FDA approval on Friday, citing concerns about the danger of addiction posed by the drug class known as opioids. But FDA officials said the regulatory agency could still approve the drug for sale in the United States by imposing restrictions to protect...

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Judge rejects bid to block Washington state "stoned driving" rules

OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - A judge on Friday rejected a request by a medical marijuana user to block Washington state from enforcing tougher "stoned driving" rules after it became one of the first U.S. states to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Washington state voters last month approved marijuana legalization by a margin of 56 percent to 44 percent, making the state, along with...

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