In a piece for Forbes, writer Mark Gibbs explores the role that German corporation Bayer – a producer of pharmaceuticals and agro-chemicals — appears to be playing in the global disappearance of bee colonies.
Bayer produces nicotine-based pesticides called neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid. While harmless to humans in low doses, the chemicals are lethal to insects.
Gibbs mentions three recent studies finding that even when used properly, the chemicals are toxic to ...
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A New York Times report from 2003 details a scandal in which pharmaceutical giant Bayer intentionally sold millions of dollars worth of AIDS-tainted medication in Asia and Latin America in the mid-1980s.
According to the report, the medicine is called Factor VIII concentrate. It effectively provides the missing ingredient without which hemophiliacs’ blood can’t clot. It was made using pools of plasma from 10,000 or more donors.
In the early days of ...
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A story in the Tampa Bay Times warns readers that a long airplane trip can put them at risk of suffering a blood clot.
The story cites research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which found that taking a blood thinner – or even a baby aspirin – before such a trip may reduce that risk.
Anyone can be at a higher risk of blood clots in the legs, called deep ...
continue reading...Pharmaceutical companies and public health advocates worldwide are keeping an eye on a legal case in India, in which pharmaceutical giant Bayer is appealing a decision by the Indian patent controller to override the company’s monopoly on its cancer drug Nexavar.
If upheld, the decision will allow an Indian company to produce and sell the drug for the equivalent of $173 U.S. dollars a month, the Financial Times reports.
Bayer’s pricing would ...
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According to a Reuters story, German drug manufacturer Bayer is seeking European approval of a contraceptive skin patch.
The story notes that Bayer’s main oral contraceptive brand, Yasmin, has generated controversy over health risks. The company has so far agreed to pay a combined $400 million to settle almost one third of about 6,000 legal claims in the U.S. that Yasmin caused ...
continue reading...The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends IUDs or hormonal implants as the best birth control for girls, according to the Miami Herald.
The Miami Herald notes that both types of contraception are more invasive and expensive than birth control pills, requiring a doctor to put them in place, which may explain why pills are still the most popular form of contraception in the U.S.
But birth control pills are sometimes ...
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