The FDA seems poised to approve a new morning-after pill, one which is effective for up to five days after unprotected sex, two days longer than the currently available Plan B. French drugmaker HRA Pharma has asked permission to sell Ella in the US, the brand name for the chemical ulipristal.

The Wall Street Journal reports that doctors are developing guidelines for administering statins based on an elevated cardiac risk profile. This new approach, which considers risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, and family health history, in addition to the commonly-used lipid levels, would ultimately provide a more patient-specific treatment regimen:

While the gay blood ban continues to exacerbate the blood shortage, a new drug may reduce the need for blood donors, or at least conserve blood bank reserves. A study published in The Lancet called CRASH-2 shows that tranexamic acid, a very cost-effective drug, can prolong the duration of blood clots and possibly save the lives of accident victims who might otherwise bleed to death.

ACSH staffers are surprised that the Department of Health and Human Services Blood Advisory Committee did not overturn the ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men. The issue is nothing new to ACSH s Jeff Stier, who referred to the ban as a reckless commitment to the precautionary principle in 2008.

ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross was featured as a special guest on a China Central TV Global Debate program, and debated Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, an activist against genetically modified food and the use of biotechnology in agriculture.
According to Dr. Ross, Dr. Ho is very opinionated and makes things up as she goes along.

This Friday, data from 4,000 patients across 11 failed Alzheimer s drug clinical trials will be publicly available for a group of major pharmaceutical companies who have agreed to collaborate and pool information in order to better understand how the disease progresses.

In another news story illustrating the potentially disastrous health effects that studies hyping such exaggerated risks may perpetuate, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) has demanded that the FDA immediately provide guidance and reassurance to consumers about a potential link between a common sunscreen additive and skin cancer.
Studies conducted in laboratory animals suggest a possible link between retinyl palmitate and skin cancer, but no human data was analyzed, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross.

Angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs), a class of medications used by millions worldwide to treat hypertension, may be linked to cancer, a study published today in Lancet Oncology claims. In an analysis of 60,000 patients, researchers found a 1 percent higher risk of getting cancer in people who took the drug compared to those who did not.

A whopping $712 million settlement was approved Thursday for approximately 10,000 rescue and clean-up workers who claim their health was compromised at Ground Zero. Compensatory payments will be allotted even to plaintiffs who currently have no qualifying injuries.

America seems in the grip of chemophobia, the unfounded fear of chemicals. CNN recently served up specials entitled Toxic America and Toxic Childhood. The New Yorker had a piece fretting about the Plastic Panic. The President s Cancer Panel anguished about all the untested environmental chemicals many designated by them as carcinogens in our air, water and food. And there are more frightening (but scientifically baseless) chemical health scares to come.