A monthly injection of an experimental drug made by the US biotech firm Amgen reduced patients' cholesterol by up to 66 percent, according to a small study described at a US cardiology conference.

Patients with advanced heart disease who received an experimental stem cell therapy showed slightly improved heart function, researchers said at a major US cardiology conference on Saturday.

The anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen can reduce acute altitude sickness suffered by a quarter of the millions of Americans who travel to the mountains to ski or hike, according to a clinical study published Tuesday.

Researchers on Tuesday unveiled a blueprint to guide the next steps in the hunt for a more effective vaccine against tuberculosis as the world's most advanced clinical trial nears its end.

A drug designed to treat nervous spasms has cleared an important early test in a project to see whether it can also cure alcoholism, French doctors said on Tuesday.

One of the world's leading researchers into spinal cord injuries says China could hold the key to a cure that he has been searching for since he met late actor Christopher Reeve in the 1990s.

Cuba's top biotech teams have successfully tested a new AIDS vaccine on mice, and are ready to soon begin human testing, a leading researcher told a biotechnology conference in Havana on Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A vaccination campaign to prevent teenagers from taking up smoking would be too expensive to recommend, according to Australian researchers who looked at the costs and benefits of anti-nicotine shots in development.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian drugmaker UCB <UCB.BR> forecast sales and profit would fall this year after the cost of launching new medicines and higher drug trial expenses pushed down 2011 earnings.

Japanese drugs giant Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma will buy US biotechnology cancer specialist Boston Biomedical for a price that could hit $2.6 billion, the companies announced Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older adults who have surgery for a particular type of lung cancer often have radiation therapy afterward. But a new study suggests that the radiation typically does nothing to extend their lives.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co said on Wednesday that it will buy U.S.-based Boston Biomedical Inc for $200 million to expand its cancer treatment business and extend its global reach.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Drugmaker-funded science isn't always more likely to favor new medicines than studies paid for by non-profits, according to a new report on past research in rheumatoid arthritis.

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) - An experimental inhaled lung treatment from Forest Laboratories Inc and Almirall SA won a U.S. panel's support on Thursday, a boost for the companies' chances of eventually gaining approval for a drug to treat smoker's cough.

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) - An experimental inhaled lung treatment from Forest Laboratories Inc and Almirall SA won the support of a U.S. advisory panel on Thursday, a boost toward eventually gaining approval for the drug to treat smoker's cough.

Monkeys suffering from Parkinson's disease show a marked improvement when human embryonic stem cells are implanted in their brains, in what a Japanese researcher said Wednesday was a world first.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drug reviewers said Forest Laboratories Inc and Almirall SA's inhaled lung treatment worked, but raised concerns about potential heart problems linked to drugs in the same class.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - To test whether a new drug is an improvement over existing treatments, the ideal clinical trial would compare the medications head to head, but few trials of rheumatoid arthritis treatments happen that way, according to a new study.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - To test whether a new drug is an improvement over existing treatments, the ideal clinical trial would compare the medications head to head, but few trials of rheumatoid arthritis treatments happen that way, according to a new study.

(Reuters) - BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc said its experimental hepatitis C drug showed promise in preclinical studies, sending its shares up as much as 16 percent to their highest in more than seven months.