NEW YORK
Pekingese top dog
A Pekingese that clearly was the crowd favorite has won America’s top dog show. Malachy the Pekingese wobbled off with best in show Tuesday night at the Westminster Kennel Club. The 4-year-old bobbing pompom won his 115th overall best in show title. He beat out a Dalmatian, German shepherd, Doberman pinscher, Irish setter, a Kerry blue terrier and wire-haired dachshund at Madison Square Garden.
TRENTON, N.J.
Drug shortage to end
A severe shortage of a childhood cancer drug should ease before hospitals run out of it in a couple weeks, a top federal regulator said Tuesday. But the companies that make the drug are giving few details about how they will find a long-term solution to end the problem. Valerie Jensen, associate director of the Food and Drug Administration’s drug shortage program, said her team is working with the three makers of preservative-free methotrexate, which is used to treat the most common childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL.
WASHINGTON
Counterfeit medicine
The maker of the widely prescribed cancer drug Avastin is warning doctors and patients about counterfeit vials of the product that have been distributed to health care facilities in the U.S. Roche’s Genentech unit said Tuesday that the fake products do not contain the key ingredient in Avastin, which is used to treat cancers of the colon, lung, kidney and brain. The drug is a huge money-maker for Roche, generating about $6 billion a year.
RICHMOND, Va.
Abortion bills pass
A Republican supermajority has muscled two of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in years through the Virginia House, including one that would all but outlaw the procedure in the state by declaring that the rights of persons apply from the moment sperm and egg unite. The bills passed over bitter yet futile objections from Democrats. And one GOP delegate caused the House to ripple when he said most abortions come as “matters of lifestyle convenience.”
Compiled from wire reports.
