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The Black Death is considered one of the most devastating pandemics in the history of humankind. More than 50 million individuals lost their lives due to the pandemic, which swept through Europe in 1347. Now, DNA from Bronze Age human skeletons has linked the emergence of plague to time as early as 3,000 BC. The DNA suggested that the plague first emerged thousands of years than previously thought and did not spread ferociously.

Yersinia pestis is the bacterium responsible for the Black Death and a number of other plagues in human history. The historic analysis of the disease’s spread and symptoms is same as that of modern outbreaks of bubonic plague.

Last month, Turing Pharmaceuticals led to a nationwide outrage and government investigations after it hiked the price of Daraprim, a drug for treating AIDS and cancer, from $13.50 a capsule to $750. San Diego’s biomedical company Imprimis Pharmaceuticals has introduced a competitor to the medication for $1 a capsule this week.

Imprimis is looking forward to follow the same strategy to undercut the sale of other generic drugs sold at quite more than their manufacturing cost. Alike Daraprim, the medications will be used in niche markets that so far haven't faced much competition.

AstraZeneca, multinational pharmaceutical and Biologics Company, announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Arthritis Advisory Committee (AAC) voted 10-4 to put forward for consent of lesinurad 200 mg tablets, which are used in the treatment of hyperuricemia linked with gout, in amalgamation with a xanthenes oxidase inhibitor (XOI).

The AAC assessed desired results from the crucial Phase-III amalgamation therapy program trials, which was the largest clinical data set of gout patients treated along with urate-lowering therapy.

All 10 supporters of the drug, lesinurad, passed their voting by compelling the FDA to ask AstraZeneca for studies after lesinurad launch to measure its long-lasting effectiveness and safety.

Diabetes in general is not at all good for a person’s health then it can be expected how bad it would be for pregnant women and babies. Gestational diabetes affects woman and her baby’s health. Many times, its symptoms disappear after delivery, but women are at increased risk of developing post-pregnancy type-2 diabetes later in life.

But if the risk is big then there is a need to have healthcare provider who manages these types of risk. Study’s lead researcher Dr. Girish Rayanagoudar of Queen Mary University, Barts Health NHS Trust in London, said, “Although the majority of clinicians were aware that gestational diabetes is a risk factor, it is worrying that many underestimated or were unsure of the risk”.

A panel of medical experts who took part in Drug Pricing: Public Health Implications thinks there is need to bring the price of prescription medicines in America in line with the value they provide to patients. It should not be the case that drug makers are setting any price they like.

“Americans at the same time are getting tremendously ripped off with drugs and also getting tremendous value and we almost never know when we're getting ripped off and when we're getting real value and that has to change”, affirmed Steven Pearson, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER).

It is now increasingly being believed that food addiction could be a real problem. Now, researchers think there are certain foods towards which one feels automatic inclination. For the first time, researchers have tried out food types that can prove most addictive.

In order to know the same, researchers have recruited a group of 120 undergraduate students at the University of Michigan and a group of almost 400 adults. From them, they were asked about 35 different types of food including vegetables and pizza.

Study researchers also asked questions like if participant feels having problem in controlling the portions they eat. Out of the asked items, 18 were processed food items, which included pizza, chocolate, chips, ice cream, cake and soda among other items.