Archive for July 2nd, 2012
Pharmaceutical Giant GlaxoSmithKline settles drug fraud case for $3 billion, guilty plea
July 2nd, 2012 | 
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Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has agreed to pay $3 billion US in criminal and civil fines and plead guilty to misdemeanour criminal charges related to the sale and marketing of its antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin and the diabetes drug Avandia in the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history.
The British pharmaceutical giant has admitted to misbranding the antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin and marketing them for uses not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including the treatment of children for depression and the treatment of ailments such as obesity, anxiety, addiction and ADHD.
In some cases, the company did so despite warnings about possible safety risks from the FDA, such as an increased risk of suicide for children under 18 taking antidepressants.
It also admitted in the settlement that it did not provide the FDA with safety information that indicated its diabetes drug Avandia might cause heart problems. The drug was eventually pulled off the shelves in Europe and its sale restricted in the U.S.
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World awaits Higgs boson announcement
Physicists around the world are preparing for an announcement this Wednesday that is tipped to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson.
The Higgs boson is said to have appeared out of the chaos of the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago and turned the flying debris from that primeval explosion into galaxies, stars, and planets.
Its formal discovery, according to a broad scientific consensus, would be the greatest advance in knowledge of the universe in decades.
But until now, in the four decades of research since its existence was first posited, no-one has claimed to have more than seen a hint of the Higgs Boson.
CERN will hold a scientific seminar at 9:00CEST on 4 July to deliver the latest update in the search for the Higgs boson …
If and when a new particle is discovered, ATLAS and CMS will need time to ascertain whether it is the long sought Higgs boson, the last missing ingredient of the Standard Model of particle physics, or whether it is a more exotic form of the boson that could open the door to new physics …
The Standard Model gives an extraordinarily precise picture of the matter that makes up all the visible universe, and the forces that govern its behaviour, but there are good reasons to believe that this is not the end of the story. For example, we know from observation that the visible universe is just 4% of what seems to be out there.
CERN Press Office
Well, if they don’t find “the God particle," we’ll always have string theory, and that requires our known universe to have a minimum of 10 dimensions. But that might upset some people. At least until they come up with the idea of 10 Gods again. Then everyone would be happy. Except atheists.
Keep infants out of the sun, the government says
With the constant drumbeat of reminders to put sunscreen on your skin, it might be confusing to consider what to do about that especially vulnerable skin of an infant.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administrationrecommends that, generally, babies younger than 6 months old should not have sunscreen put on their skin.
"The best approach is to keep infants under 6 months out of the sun, and to avoid exposure to the sun in the hours between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when ultraviolet (UV) rays are most intense." says Hari Cheryl Sachs, a pediatrician at the FDA.
Gestational age affects academic achievement in full-term babies
Children born at 37 or 38 weeks gestation had significantly lower scores in reading and math tests compared with those born at 39, 40 or 41 weeks, according to a study in the journal Pediatrics. Researchers found no evidence that birth weight and other obstetrical, social and economic factors were linked to the academic achievement of the children.
Study: Walking helps curb diabetes risk
Data on more than 1,800 participants from Native American communities showed those who walked the most were 29% less likely to develop diabetes over five years than those who walked the least. The findings appear in Diabetes Care.
How to Make Optimism Work for You
Elaine Fox, a psychologist at the University of Essex in England and author of an informative new book on the science of optimism, “Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain,” says positive thinking is not the main thing about optimism.
“What really makes the difference is action,” she told me. “If you sit back passively, you won’t get the job you want.”
Spanking Kids Leads to Adult Mental Illnesses
Childhood punishments such as spanking, slapping, and hitting — even in the absence of full-scale maltreatment — are associated with an increased risk of mental disorders in adulthood, researchers reported.