Allergan Inc., the maker of wrinkle-smoothing Botox, has agreed to pay $600 million to settle a years long federal investigation into its marketing of the top-selling, botulin-based drug. (GazetteXtra)

Tens of millions of people in low and middle income countries would be pushed below the poverty line by buying common but vital medicines which are already unaffordable to hundreds of millions more, a study has found. (Reuters)

For a while there, things didn’t look too good for British writer Simon Singh. The best-selling author of the science histories Big Bang and Fermat’s Enigma knew he was heading into controversial territory when he switched tracks to cowrite a book investigating alternative medicine, Trick or Treatment? What Singh didn’t count on, however, was that writing a seemingly innocuous article for London’s The Guardian newspaper about especially outrageous chiropractic claims—one of the subjects he researched for the book—would end up threatening his career. The British Chiropractic Association sued Singh, hoping to use Britain’s draconian libel laws to force him to withdraw his statements and issue an apology. Losing the case would have cost Singh both his reputation and a substantial amount of his personal wealth. Such is the state of science, where sometimes even stating simple truths (like the fact that there’s no reliable evidence chiropractic can alleviate asthma in children) can bring the wrath of the antiscience crowd. What the British chiropractors didn’t count on, however, was Singh himself. Having earned a PhD from Cambridge for his work at the Swiss particle physics lab CERN, he wasn’t about to back down from a scientific gunfight. Singh spent more than two years and well over $200,000 of his own money battling the case in court, and this past April he finally prevailed. In the process, he became a hero to those challenging the pseudoscience surrounding everything from global warming to vaccines to evolution. It’s not necessarily a role he sought for himself, but it’s one he has embraced—he’s currently touring the world, talking about his case, libel reform, and how important it is to make sure scientists can speak truthfully and openly. Wired spoke with Singh about his case and the struggle against the forces of irrationality. (Wired Magazine)

During the Nuremberg trials, convened at the end of World War II, lawyers for the German defendants, politicians accused of crimes against humanity, and physicians accused of euthanasia and barbaric medical experimentation offered the rationale of “kriegsraison” to exculpate their clients. The defence argument was that in conditions of all out war, those prosecuting the war can and must do whatever it takes to win. The Nuremberg tribunals summarily rejected kriegsraison as a defence. (The Lancet)

Faced with mounting debt and looming costs from the new federal health-care law, many local governments are leaving the hospital business, shedding public facilities that can be the caregiver of last resort. (Wall Street Journal)

Earlier this summer a friend revealed that for the last nine years she has been a patient in a concierge, or boutique, primary care practice. For $350 each month, she is guaranteed around-the-clock access to her doctor, appointments within 24 hours of calling, longer office visits and the kind of personalized attention and care coordination she felt was missing with all her previous doctors. (New York Times)

How should clinics that treat patients with injections of their own stem cells be regulated? That question is about to test the jurisdiction of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a landmark legal battle — and is fuelling a war of words between doctors marketing such therapies and academics who urge caution. (Nature News)

The American public bought into the specialist mystique, partly thanks to stories in the media about miracle cures that could only be provided by the right medical expert. Family doctors, general internists and pediatricians started to look a little inadequate. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

True or false: The new health care law will cut Medicare benefits for seniors. It will slash Medicare payments to doctors. It will ration health care. (USA Today)

As hospitals struggle to integrate electronic medical records, some have already instituted electronic drug ordering systems to help reduce prescription errors. But not all so-called computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems are specially tuned to different patient populations. And while some can catch potentially dangerous drug-drug interactions for individuals, only one has been alerting providers when they are ordering something that could be dangerous for seniors. (Scientific American)

NEJM (Volume 363, Number 3, July 15, 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Facing the Wild West of Health Care Reform - Donal Berwick, Pioneer” by J.K. Iglehart.
• “Disclosing Industry Relationships - Toward an Improved Federal Research Policy” by E.G. Campbell and D.E. Zinner.
• “The Renaissance in HIV Vaccine Development - Future Directions” by W.C. Koff and S.F. Berkley.
• “The Havasupai Indian Tribe Case - Lessons for Research Involving Stored Biologic Samples” by M.M. Mello and L.E. Wolf, 204-207.
• “Becoming a Physician: The Case for Primary Care - A Medical Student’s Perspective” by I. Ganguli, 207-209.
• “Case 21-2010L A Request for Retrieval of Oocytes from a 36-Year-Old Woman with Anoxic Brain Injury” by D.M. Greer, A.K. Styer, T.L. Toth, C.P. Kindregan, and J.M. Romero, 27-283.
• “Drug Management of Obesity - Efficacy versus Safety” by A. Astrup, 288-290.
• “Trajectories of Disability in the Last Year of Life,” 294-295.
• “Advance Directives and Surrogate Decision Making Before Death,” 295-296.

NEJM (Volume 363, Number 5, July 29, 2010) is now available.

Articles Include:

• “Buying Health Care, the Individual Mandate, and the Constitution” by Sara Rosenbaum and Jonathan Gruber
• “The Renaissance in HIV Vaccine Development - Future Directions” by Wayne C. Koff and Seth F. Berkley
• “Don’t Mess with the DSMB” by Jeffrey M. Drazen and Alastair J.J. Wood

Persistent racial and class disparities in access to health care are the principal reasons Maryland’s infant mortality rate — the number of infant deaths per thousand live births — has remained disturbingly high over the years. And the tragedy is that most of these deaths are preventable. (Baltimore Sun)

Review of deaths between 1921 and 2007 shows inequality is increasing with the poorest more likely to die younger. (Guardian)

Patients will find it easier to appeal the denials of health insurance claims under rules being issued Thursday by the Obama administration, which is trying to boost political support for the new health-care law by highlighting advantages for consumers. (Washington Post)

In eastern Europe’s HIV epidemic Ukraine was a bright spot; now doctors offering methadone are being arrested for trafficking. (Guardian)

Pro-life groups and other critics who are worried about the specter of health-care rationing attacked the recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick, a Harvard professor and pediatrician who was sworn in this week as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services.

While Berwick’s crusade to improve hospital services has earned national recognition, his past statements of support for health-care rationing and Britain’s government-run system have sparked controversy. (NC Register)

North Korea is failing to provide the most basic healthcare needs for its people, Amnesty International warns. An investigation by the human rights watchdog found barely functioning hospitals, poor hygiene and epidemics made worse by widespread malnutrition. (BBC News)

After years of false starts, a new generation of DNA vaccines and medicines for HIV, influenza and other stubborn illnesses is now in clinical trials. (Scientific American)

Federal scientists disagreed sharply Tuesday about whether the diabetes drug Avandia is unsafe and should be removed from the market. The conflicting analyses were presented during the opening day of a two-day meeting of scientific advisers that the Food and Drug Administration convened in Gaithersburg to evaluate the diabetes drug. (Washington Post)

Nature Medicine (Volume 16, Issue 7, July 2010) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Legalese Creates Consent ‘Conundrum’ in Clinical Trials” by Elie Dolgin
• “FDA Strengthens its Stance Against Unethical Researchers” by Roxanne Palmer
• “Gene Test Kit Oversight Could Prove a Mixed Blessing for Research” by Megan Scudellari
• “Researchers Knock Down Gene to Stop HIV in its Tracks” by Janelle Weaver
• “Tech Teams Try to Curate Genetic Data for Future Use” by Cassandra Willyard
• “The Inverse of Immunity” by Elie Dolgin
• “The Delay in Sharing Research Data is Costing Lives” by Josh Sommer