A recent survey has revealed that more women enjoy playing video games more than doing other activities, such as shopping, working out, or even having sex. Consisting of 2,052 respondents, the survey (commissioned by Doritos to promote their new Facebook game) found that 49% of women play video games online, compared to 50% of men. Among the female gamers, 84% said they “enjoy” gaming, 75% enjoy taking a bath, 71% enjoy shopping, 70% said they enjoy sex and 62% enjoy exercising. About 17 percent, or one in five women, said they play online games in bed.
How easy is it to find healthy food choices in your neighborhood?
The First Lady is attacking “food deserts” – places where fresh produce and affordable, healthy choices are nonexistent. Michelle Obama has teamed up with retailers, including Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s and Supervalu, to open locations and sell fresh food to underserved neighborhoods. “We can give people all the information and advice in the world about healthy eating and exercise, but if parents can’t buy the food they need to prepare those meals because their only options for groceries are the gas station or the local minimart, then all that is just talk,” she said Wednesday. O
Collagen cross-linking for treating keratoconus and ectasia, laser photocoagulation of retinal disease and integration of electronic imaging records are among the areas of the ophthalmology market where Topcon Medical Systems is making inroads.
Topcon is funding three ongoing trials to assess the potential use of corneal collagen cross-linking while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers the treatment for post-LASIK ectasia and keratoconus. This effort follows on the heels of Topcons acquisition of the Pascal system and, more recently, the release of the updated comprehensive software platform EyeRoute Synergy.
There’s a war going on inside the bodies of cancer patients on chemotherapy. The work of anti-cancer agents is often undone by Bcl-2 proteins, which fend off attacking chemotherapy drugs and prevent cancer cells from dying. Now, researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Australia have found what they think is an effective counterattack against Bcl-2 and they’re testing it in some of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer.
They’re deploying ABT-737, one of a new class of anti-cancer agents called BH3 mimetics that neutralize Bcl-2 proteins. The treatment is showing promise against hard-to-treat triple-negative breast cancer.
The married-up Express Scripts/Medco will face off not only against incumbent CVS Caremark, but, it appears, against an emerging new rival: the pharmacy operation of UnitedHealth Groups Optum health-services unit.
With Medcos announcement today that it will lose its UnitedHealth contract at the start of 2013, the rationale for selling itself to Express may also become a bit clearer. The UnitedHealth contract was its biggest, representing 17% of its 2010 revenues, or roughly 164 million claims, and a mid- to high-single-digit percentage of its earnings per share, according to J.P.
Why do so many candidate drugs for Alzheimer’s disease fail in clinical trials? The question hung over this week’s annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Paris, where the post-mortem on semagacestat, a drug from pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly that was pulled late last year, was a hot topic.