Novo Nordisk says obesity pill leads to 15% weight loss; availability ‘to be determined’

By Deena Beasley SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk on Sunday said a late-stage trial found that a high-dose oral version of its drug semaglutide helped overweight or obese adults lose 15% of their body weight, which is in line with recent results for other experimental obesity pills. Novo plans to seek U.S. and European…

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GSK soothes investors by settling first Zantac cancer lawsuit due for US trial

(This June 23 story has been corrected to say analysts had suggested cases in California, not only the Goetz case, would have cost GSK ‘low hundreds of millions’ of dollars to settle, in paragraph 13) By Natalie Grover and Eva Mathews (Reuters) – GSK agreed to settle a U.S. lawsuit alleging its discontinued heartburn drug…

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Cocaine market is booming as meth trafficking spreads, U.N. report says

VIENNA (Reuters) – Cocaine demand and supply are booming worldwide and methamphetamine trafficking is expanding beyond established markets, including in Afghanistan where the drug is now being produced, a United Nations report said on Sunday. Coca bush cultivation and total cocaine production were at record highs in 2021, the most recent year for which data…

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Trump says ‘vital’ federal role remains for regulating abortion

By Moira Warburton WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump said the federal government has a role in regulating late term abortions, but declined to provide specifics on what that role was in a speech to a conservative audience on Saturday night. Trump has been relatively quiet on the issue of abortion throughout his campaign…

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US activists rally one year after Supreme Court allowed abortion bans

By Julia Harte (Reuters) -Abortion rights supporters and opponents held dueling rallies around the U.S. on Saturday, the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized the procedure nationwide. In Washington, speakers from national abortion rights groups, including Women’s March and NARAL Pro-Choice America, assembled…

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US files first-ever charges against Chinese fentanyl manufacturers

By Sarah N. Lynch and Luc Cohen WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department on Friday filed criminal charges against four Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and eight individuals over allegations they illegally trafficked the chemicals used to make fentanyl – a highly addictive painkiller that has fueled the opioid crisis in the United States. The…

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No direct evidence COVID started in Wuhan lab – US intelligence report

By Dan Whitcomb (Reuters) -U.S. intelligence agencies found no direct evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic stemmed from an incident at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, a report declassified on Friday said. The four-page report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said the U.S. intelligence community still could not rule out the…

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Arizona governor issues order to protect abortion rights

By Daniel Trotta (Reuters) – Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs on Friday issued an order to protect abortion rights, wielding her executive power to curtail the effects of a restrictive abortion law signed by her Republican predecessor. Hobbs said on Twitter she ordered all abortion-related prosecutions centralized under the office of Attorney General Kristin Mays,…

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Republican 2024 hopefuls back abortion limits one year after Roe v Wade overturned

By Gram Slattery WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Several Republican presidential candidates praised restrictions on abortion rights at a conference of Christian conservatives on Friday, illustrating how the issue still animates the party one year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down nationwide constitutional protections for the procedure. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has emerged as…

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