Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
EU EXPANSION
KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Road Transport Union (IRU) has called on the European Union (EU) to take precautions in preparation for the admission of new Member States from the east, to make sure the EU road haulage market is not flooded with cut-priced cowboy hauliers from these former communist countries.…
END OF LIFE VEHICLES
BY ALAN OSBORN
TEN of the 15 European Union (EU) Member States have so far failed to bring in national legislation putting into effect the end-of-life vehicles directive agreed in 2000 and could face legal action in the European Court of Justice, the Europe Commission announced today (Monday).…
WHO LIST
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation has released a first edition of a WHO Model Formulary, which – uniquely – gives comprehensive information on all 325 medicines contained in the WHO Model List of Essential Drugs, including data on use, dosage, adverse effects, contra-indications and other health warnings.…
LIIKANEN SPEECH
BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen has called on European governments and public institutions to examine further ways of encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to spend more on research and development into medicines for rare diseases. Highlighting the special marketing rights granted in the EU to orphan drugs, the Commissioner told a Brussels roundtable on the subject: “We should more and more find means to get the pharmaceutical industry involved in clear and targeted projects.”…
EP VOTES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEP’s are pushing for changes to proposed European Union legislation on the authorisation of medicinal products so that it insists that all new medical products should be tested regarding suitability for children. Changes supported by the European Parliament’s environment committee say that a database on medicinal products should include information about which medicines are specifically authorised for administration to children.…
SELF-HEALING SATELLITE
BY MATTHEW BRACE
AUSTRALIAN researchers have programmed a satellite computer operating 800 kilometres above the surface of the Earth to repair itself from blasts of potentially catastrophic space radiation, such as those emitted by a sun spot this week. Scientists from the Canberra-based Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems (CRCSS) used a combination of smart software and components called Field Programmable Gate Arrays to create their self-healing computer on the satellite FedSat.…
STODDART LATEST
BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S federal Department for Canadian Heritage has established a CDN$2.5 million fund to help Canadian book publishers and authors affected by the demise of General Publishing Co. Publishers will be eligible to receive up to 65 per cent of the amount owed to them by GDS as of May 16, 2002.…
ABBOTT LABORATORIES
BY PHILIP FINE
THE USA’s Abbott Laboratories has announced it will eliminate 2,000 jobs as a
cost-cutting measure. The Chicago-area based pharmaceuticals company, will close
10 facilities worldwide, but has not yet disclosed their locations. The restructuring is targeted at both the international and diagnostics divisions, the latter of which has been under regulatory scrutiny for quality-control issues.…
HERBAL SUPPLEMENT
BY PHILIP FINE
THE US Food and Drug Administration has moved to prevent a seller of dietary herbal products from marketing its products as recreational drugs. The FDA says it e-mailed Xoch Linnebank, a Dutch on-line seller of Yellow Jackets, warning it that promoting the pills as a "herbal ecstasy" is illegal.…
CHICAGO SOYBEAN CASE
BY PHILIP FINE
THE CHICAGO Board of Trade is being sued in the US District Court in Chicago for a 1989 decision that forced the owners of large amounts of soybean futures contracts to sell their positions. Farmer Harvey Joe Sanner is alleging that the Board knew its order would cause prices to drop, thereby benefiting the trading firm of one of its directors.…