On May 18, the California Senate passed a bill that would ban pharmaceutical companies from giving gifts to doctors. The Senate voted 23-13 in favor of sending the bill to the Assembly. [1]
For the bill, SB 790, California lawmakers used a similar 2009 Vermont law enacted in 2009 as a template.
Doctors at teaching hospitals are more likely to prescribe generic drugs over name-brand ones when pharmaceutical sales representatives are kept at bay, a study published in JAMA shows. [1]
By comparison, doctors working in hospitals that don’t keep pharma sales reps on a short leash – freely accepting meals and gifts, and letting reps have free reign of the hospital – prescribed far more name-brand medications.
Life is about to get easier for people with Type 1 diabetes, now that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new automated insulin delivery system.
In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas makes little or no insulin, so patients must inject themselves multiple times a day with insulin, or use an insulin pump. It can be easy to inject too much or too little of the hormone, depending on what and how much a person eats, and if they exercise. [1]
It is no secret that obesity is on the rise in the west, with a new study finding that 10 percent of UK parents are giving their toddlers adult-sized portions instead of those appropriate to their age. Needless to say, this is likely a contributing factor in the increasing waistlines of children across the western world.
The alarming research also found that almost 80 percent of children ages 1 to 4 are getting more food than they need. This, while other children don’t know when their next meal will come, or where it will come from.
