International news and information

U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. said it was "deeply concerned" about allegations published in a Chinese newspaper that it spent more than $4.9 million to bribe doctors in China to prescribe the firm's medicines instead of rival products.
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St. Jude Medical, a St. Paul, Minn.-based medical-device maker, paid $170 million to acquire the Swiss manufacturer of a force-sensing ablation catheter yet to be approved for use in the U.S.
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Norfolk General Hospital, Simcoe, Ontario, says it has fired a nurse for inappropriately accessing the medical records of more than 1,300 patients. The hospital investigated and found multiple breaches of the Personal Information Protection Act by the nurse dating back to 2004.
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Healthcare staff in England, Wales and Scotland having HIV treatment will be able to take part in all tasks, including surgery and dentistry. England's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, said it was time to scrap "outdated rules."
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India has partly revoked patents granted to Roche Holding AG for its breast cancer drug Herceptin, a spokesman for the drugmaker confirmed on Sunday.
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Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson says it is pleased to put a legal dispute behind it after a Chinese court ordered it to pay compensation to a former distributor under an anti-monopoly law.
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U.S. drugmaker Perrigo agreed Monday to buy Ireland's Elan for $8.6 billion in a deal that should allow the rapidly growing company to reduce its tax bill and boost its royalty stream.
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In the United Arab Emirates, the phrase “worth its weight in gold” now has a literal meaning. As part of an effort to get the oil-rich Middle Eastern country to slim down, the government is offering to give residents a gram of gold for each kilogram, roughly 2.2 pounds, they lose by...
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China will punish 39 hospital employees for taking illegal kickbacks from drugmakers amid a widening investigation of corruption in the country's $350 billion healthcare market.
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The British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline said that some of its executives might have broken the law in China, the company’s strongest statement yet on a bribery and corruption scandal that has engulfed its China operations.
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