Selected News from Today's FirstWord

Half of Americans took prescription drugs in 2008, report says
by Lianne Dane

A survey released Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that almost half of Americans took at least one prescription drug per month in 2008, marking an increase of 10 percent since 1999. Across the same period, spending on prescription drugs more than doubled to $234.1 billion. Full story

• AstraZeneca's Seroquel XR approved in Europe as add-on treatment - (Ref. Canadian Business; MarketWatch; Morningstar; Stock Markets Review; Yahoo!News; AstraZeneca)
• Takeda signs deal to sell Orexigen's obesity drug in North America - (Ref. Bloomberg; Canadian Business; MarketWatch; TheStreet.com; Xconomy; Orexigen Therapeutics; Takeda)
• Abbott decides against sales of vaccines business - (Ref. The Wall Street Journal)
• Novartis' experimental malaria drug shows promise in preclinical study - (Ref. Bloomberg; Financial Times; France 24; livemint.com; The Wall Street Journal; Yahoo!News; NIH)
• Study: Lowering blood pressure may protect against kidney damage in some patients - (Ref. BusinessWeek; The Miami Herald; Yahoo!News; NIH)

Also in the News

• Products:
• AGS-16M8F,
• carboplatin,
• Myaccord,
• Reolysin,
• RiVax,
• Tarceva,
• Xeloda

• Companies:
• Celsion,
• Douglas Pharmaceuticals,
• Grifols,
• Neptune,
• Roche,
• Seattle Genetics,
• Xoma

• Markets:
• Germany,
• US,
• World

Most Read Stories in the Past Week

• Roche may discuss cost-cutting, potential jobs cuts: report
• Novartis receives FDA approval for Tekamlo
• FDA turns down Roche's accelerated approval request for T-DM1
• Sanofi-aventis goes public with $18.5-billion Genzyme takeover bid
• EMA launches investigation into GlaxoSmithKline's Pandemrix