Health, Drugs | featured news

More than 100 cancer specialists have banded together to persuade pharmaceutical companies to bring prices down, suggesting that the high prices for medicine needed to keep someone alive is profiteering.

A new study shows how difficult that information is to come by.

When 3-year-old Shepherd Strauss got sick, his parents turned to doctors and drugs. But they couldn’t anticipate that what would help him feel better didn’t come with a prescription.

Shortages of a chemotherapy drug probably led to higher rates of cancer relapse among young patients, hospital records show. The finding raises questions about the impacts of recurring drug shortages.

A comprehensive study of the genetics of a common lung cancer finds that more than half the tumors have mutations that might be treated by drugs that are already in the pipeline or that could be developed.

The new class of drug, which can be taken orally, is designed to protect the brain by combating the damaging effects of inflammation. Results from early stage clinical trials have yet to be announced, but studies on animals suggest the therapy could be effective against a wide range of conditions which also include motor neurone disease and complications from traumatic brain injury.

Medical science efforts to harness the power of the immune system against cancer are beginning to bear fruit after decades of frustration, opening up a hopeful new front in the long battle against the disease.

Just because the wonder drugs of the ’90s have disappointed doesn’t mean the science should be completely discarded. But it does mean we need a more sophisticated theory of depression.

Prescription sleep medications, also called hypnotics, rank among the most-advertised and most-prescribed drugs in the United States. Might these pills be doing more than helping people get a good night’s sleep?

The breast cancer drug Herceptin increases the risk of heart problems in elderly patients, especially those with a history of heart disease and/or ...