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Panamanian authorities seize 2.4 tons of cocaine

Agencia EFEMay 20, 2013 21:47
Panama City, May 20 (EFE).- Panama's National Aeronaval Service, or Senan, seized 2.4 tons of cocaine and arrested a Honduran man in an operation in the Caribbean province of Colon, authorities said Monday. Senan assistant commissioner Edgar Pino said at a press conference that the anti-drug operation was carried out last Friday in the Punta Ciri sector, where the Honduran citizen was arrested and two speedboats seized. Pino said that the cocaine was found inside an abandoned house divided into a number of nylon sacks. Also found at the house was an AK-47 assault rifle.

Drug traffickers targeting Australia

Agence France-PresseMay 20, 2013 00:45
Australia seized a record 23 tonnes of illicit drugs in 2011-2012 with arrests at a 10-year high, data showed Monday, as officials warned the country had become a key target for traffickers. The annual Australian Crime Commission report showed the amount caught was up 154 percent on the previous year, boosted by a single 11 tonne bust of hypophosphorous acid in New South Wales state. The substance is used in the manufacture of methylamphetamine and had the potential to produce 6.5 tonnes of the drug, with an estimated street value of Aus$3.8 billion.

Ford should directly address allegations of drug use in video scandal: expert

The Canadian PressMay 19, 2013 13:01
TORONTO - A public relations expert suggests Rob Ford's decision not to host his weekly radio show on Sunday may indicate the Toronto mayor has yet to fully figure out how to respond to allegations he was recorded on video appearing to smoke crack cocaine. Queen's University Professor Monica LaBarge said Ford should come out and directly say whether the alleged drug use the video reportedly appears to show is true — something she says Ford could have used this week's edition of his Toronto talk radio show to do.

Crack-cocaine video allegations 'ridiculous,' Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says

The Canadian PressMay 17, 2013 03:00
TORONTO - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, whose tenure has been plagued by controversy and embarrassment, found himself embroiled in a new scandal Friday amid two independent reports he was caught on video appearing to smoke crack cocaine. Leaving his home and again at city hall, Ford refused to answer any questions, but was quick to dismiss one of the reports as yet another smear job, although neither he nor his lawyer called the video fake. "These allegations are ridiculous," Ford said. "It's another story with respect to the Toronto Star going after me and that's all."

Anger over East German medical 'human guinea pigs'

Agence France-PresseMay 16, 2013 07:01
Germany is confronting another chapter from its past -- allegations that Western drug companies used more than 50,000 people in the former communist East as "human guinea pigs" in 1980s medical trials. News magazine Spiegel this week reported that a who's who of big German, Swiss and US pharmaceutical companies made deals with the dictatorship to test medicines, sometimes without the knowledge of the patients.

Senators move ahead with bill to federally oversee large compounding pharmacies

The Canadian PressMay 15, 2013 14:39
WASHINGTON - Senate lawmakers are pushing ahead with a bill that would bring new federal oversight to large specialty pharmacies like the one that triggered a deadly meningitis outbreak last year. The bill introduced Tuesday by Democrats and Republicans would subject such large compounding operations to direct federal oversight by the Food and Drug Administration, rather than the state pharmacy boards that have traditionally overseen them.

FDA warns shorter name of new Roche cancer drug may cause confusion

May 15, 2013 14:37
(Reuters) - The U.S. health regulator warned on Monday that using a shorter name for Roche's new breast cancer drug Kadcyla may lead to the treatment being confused with an older therapy and cause potential harm to patients. The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning on its website saying that some third-party publications, health information systems and websites were incorrectly using a truncated version of Kadcyla's generic name.

Arena withdraws diet drug application in Europe; shares fall

May 15, 2013 14:35
By Adithya Venkatesan (Reuters) - Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc withdrew an application to market its anti-obesity drug in the European Union, sending its shares down 15 percent in after-hours trading. The European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) said certain "major objections" remain outstanding that preclude the recommendation of approval of the drug, according to the company.

California high court affirms local right to ban medical pot shops

May 15, 2013 14:33
By Ronnie Cohen SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The California Supreme Court dealt a blow to the state's faltering medical-marijuana industry on Monday by ruling that local governments may outlaw dispensaries that sell the federally banned drug. The unanimous opinion, which comes as elected officials across the nation grapple with regulating a growing medical pot industry, upheld a ban the southern California city of Riverside enacted on pot shops in 2010.

FDA advisers vote against Delcath's cancer therapy

May 15, 2013 14:32
(Reuters) - A panel of advisers to the U.S. health regulator said that risks outweighed the benefits in Delcath Systems Inc's cancer therapy for a rare form of eye cancer that spreads to the liver. The panel of independent experts voted 16-0 against the drug/device combination. The drug-device combination product consists of a chemotherapy drug, melphalan hydrochloride, and a device known as the Delcath Hepatic Delivery System. The two are combined in a single package known as the Melblez Kit.
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