Higher Cancer Rate Seen in Children With Juvenile Arthritis

MONDAY, Feb. 13 (HealthDay News) -- The cancer rate in children with juvenile arthritis is four times higher than in other children, a new study says.

This increased risk of cancer isn't necessarily linked to arthritis treatments, such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors, according to the study published online Feb. 13 in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

In the United States, TNF inhibitors carry a "black box" warning about the potential cancer risk associated with the drugs.

In this study, the researchers analyzed 2000-2005 Medicaid data from more than 7,800 children with juvenile arthritis and comparison groups of about 650,000 children with asthma and nearly 322,000 children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The incidence rate of probable and highly probable cancers in children with juvenile arthritis was 4.4 times higher than in the other groups of children.

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) in children is a general term covering different types of chronic arthritis. Symptoms, similar to adult arthritis, include joint pain, swelling, tenderness and stiffness.

"While our findings show children with [juvenile idiopathic arthritis] have a higher incidence of cancer compared to peers without JIA, the greater frequency of malignancy does not appear to be necessarily associated with treatment, including use of TNF inhibitors," concluded Dr. Timothy Beukelman, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in a journal news release.

"This highlights the critical importance of appropriate comparator groups when evaluating the safety of new medications. Further confirmation of our findings with large-scale and long-term investigation of the association between cancer and [juvenile arthritis] and its treatment is needed," he added.

Most of the children with juvenile arthritis in the study were treated with injections of etanercept, a soluable TNF-receptor blocker. Other anti-TNF drugs that work by different mechanisms may yield different results, Dr. Karen Onel and Dr. Kenan Onel from the University of Chicago noted in an accompanying journal editorial.

But, "By focusing on the possible cancer risk associated with the use of TNF inhibitors, the underlying cancer risk associated with [juvenile arthritis] may have been understated, and it is important to make patients, families and physicians aware of the possible late consequences of this disease," they added in the news release.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases has more about juvenile arthritis.

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Shoppers Drug Mart profit rises with higher sales

TORONTO (Reuters) - Shoppers Drug Mart Corp , Canada's biggest pharmacy chain, said on Thursday its quarterly profit rose along with sales, especially in its non-prescription business, and its shares rose 2 percent.

Front-of-store sales, which include over-the-counter medications, cosmetics, food and drinks, rose 5.5 percent in the fourth quarter, outpacing prescription revenue, which was up 2.3 percent.

"They delivered to expectations, which I think is solid," said Scotia Capital analyst Patricia Baker. "It's a tough economy out there."

Shoppers also raised its dividend by 6 percent and renewed its share repurchase program.

Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough said that considerable discounting in the quarter meant higher-than-expected sales did not translate into much higher earnings.

"Obviously it was very promotionally driven, and that's been going on for two years now, and I don't see an end in sight," he said.

Margins on prescription drugs narrowed because of government reforms that have lowered the price of generics. That segment of prescriptions rose to 57.1 percent of the total in the quarter from 55.7 percent in the year-before period.

Yarbrough said drug reforms have been the biggest factor in pushing Shoppers from 15 to 18 percent earnings growth to 3 to 7 percent growth. He sees the headwinds persisting as more Canadian provinces consider the regulatory changes that are already in place in Ontario and Quebec.

PRESCRIPTION FILES

Asked on a conference call about the company's interest in buying prescription files from other pharmacy chains, Chief Financial Officer Brad Lukow said such acquisitions are still a priority.

"The team is quite active on a number of fronts, on a number of deals, in number of provinces," he said. "It's still our expectation that we'll see quite a bit more activity in terms of completed transactions in 2012, but it will be a build process throughout the year."

U.S. discount chain Target Corp is taking over the leases of many stores in Hudson's Bay Co's Zellers discount chain as part of its spring 2013 entry into Canada. It will not, however, buy Zellers' prescription files, offering an opportunity for Canadian drugstores.

In November, Shoppers Chief Executive Domenic Pilla said the company would try to benefit from Target's entry by taking some of Zellers' prescription customers. The company did not mention Zellers on Thursday.

NET INCOME, SALES RISE

For the quarter ended December 31, Shoppers' net income rose to C$176 million ($176.82 million), or 82 Canadian cents a share, from C$169 million, or 78 Canadian cents, in the same quarter last year. Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 82 Canadian cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said it expects sales to increase between 2.5 and 3.0 percent in 2012, after a rise of 2.6 percent last year. As part of its C$350 million capital program, it plans to increase retail space by 3.5 percent, relocating about 20 stores, opening 20 to 25 new outlets, and expanding about 15 locations.

Shoppers raised its quarterly dividend to 26.5 Canadian cents a share. In renewing its stock repurchase program, it authorized the purchase of up 10.6 million shares, or about 5 percent of shares outstanding, by February 14, 2013.

The company's shares closed up 2.0 percent at C$40.64 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday.

($1=$0.99 Canadian)

(Reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto and Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore; Editing by Peter Galloway and Janet Guttsman)

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Shoppers Drug Mart profit rises with higher sales

TORONTO (Reuters) - Shoppers Drug Mart Corp , Canada's biggest pharmacy chain, said on Thursday its quarterly profit rose along with sales, especially in its non-prescription business, and its shares rose 2 percent.

Front-of-store sales, which include over-the-counter medications, cosmetics, food and drinks, rose 5.5 percent in the fourth quarter, outpacing prescription revenue, which was up 2.3 percent.

"They delivered to expectations, which I think is solid," said Scotia Capital analyst Patricia Baker. "It's a tough economy out there."

Shoppers also raised its dividend by 6 percent and renewed its share repurchase program.

Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough said that considerable discounting in the quarter meant higher-than-expected sales did not translate into much higher earnings.

"Obviously it was very promotionally driven, and that's been going on for two years now, and I don't see an end in sight," he said.

Margins on prescription drugs narrowed because of government reforms that have lowered the price of generics. That segment of prescriptions rose to 57.1 percent of the total in the quarter from 55.7 percent in the year-before period.

Yarbrough said drug reforms have been the biggest factor in pushing Shoppers from 15 to 18 percent earnings growth to 3 to 7 percent growth. He sees the headwinds persisting as more Canadian provinces consider the regulatory changes that are already in place in Ontario and Quebec.

PRESCRIPTION FILES

Asked on a conference call about the company's interest in buying prescription files from other pharmacy chains, Chief Financial Officer Brad Lukow said such acquisitions are still a priority.

"The team is quite active on a number of fronts, on a number of deals, in number of provinces," he said. "It's still our expectation that we'll see quite a bit more activity in terms of completed transactions in 2012, but it will be a build process throughout the year."

U.S. discount chain Target Corp is taking over the leases of many stores in Hudson's Bay Co's Zellers discount chain as part of its spring 2013 entry into Canada. It will not, however, buy Zellers' prescription files, offering an opportunity for Canadian drugstores.

In November, Shoppers Chief Executive Domenic Pilla said the company would try to benefit from Target's entry by taking some of Zellers' prescription customers. The company did not mention Zellers on Thursday.

NET INCOME, SALES RISE

For the quarter ended December 31, Shoppers' net income rose to C$176 million ($176.82 million), or 82 Canadian cents a share, from C$169 million, or 78 Canadian cents, in the same quarter last year. Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 82 Canadian cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said it expects sales to increase between 2.5 and 3.0 percent in 2012, after a rise of 2.6 percent last year. As part of its C$350 million capital program, it plans to increase retail space by 3.5 percent, relocating about 20 stores, opening 20 to 25 new outlets, and expanding about 15 locations.

Shoppers raised its quarterly dividend to 26.5 Canadian cents a share. In renewing its stock repurchase program, it authorized the purchase of up 10.6 million shares, or about 5 percent of shares outstanding, by February 14, 2013.

The company's shares closed up 2.0 percent at C$40.64 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday.

($1=$0.99 Canadian)

(Reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto and Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore; Editing by Peter Galloway and Janet Guttsman)

View the original article here

Shoppers Drug Mart profit rises on higher sales

TORONTO (Reuters) - Shoppers Drug Mart Corp , Canada's biggest pharmacy chain, said on Thursday its quarterly profit rose along with sales, especially in its non-prescription business, and its shares rose 2 percent.

Front-of-store sales, which include over-the-counter medications, cosmetics, food and drinks, rose 5.5 percent in the fourth quarter, outpacing prescription revenue, which was up 2.3 percent.

"They delivered to expectations, which I think is solid," said Scotia Capital analyst Patricia Baker. "It's a tough economy out there."

Shoppers also raised its dividend by 6 percent and renewed its share repurchase program.

Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough said higher-than-expected non-prescription sales pushed earnings above expectations, perhaps with the help of discounting.

"Obviously it was very promotionally driven, and that's been going on for two years now, and I don't see an end in sight," he said.

Margins on prescription drugs narrowed because of government reforms that have lowered the price of generics. That segment of prescriptions rose to 57.1 percent in the quarter from 55.7 percent in the year-before period.

Yarbrough said drug reforms have been the biggest factor in pushing Shoppers from 15 to 18 percent earnings growth to 3 to 7 percent growth. He sees the headwinds persisting as more Canadian provinces consider regulatory changes already in place in Ontario and Quebec.

NET INCOME, SALES RISE

For the quarter ended December 31, net income rose to C$176 million ($176.82 million), or 82 Canadian cents a share, from C$169 million, or 78 Canadian cents, in the same quarter last year. Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 82 Canadian cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shoppers said it expects sales to increase between 2.5 and 3.0 percent in 2012, after a rise of 2.6 percent last year. As part of its C$350 million capital program, it plans to increase retail space by 3.5 percent, relocating about 20 stores, opening 20 to 25 new outlets, and expanding about 15 locations.

Shoppers raised its quarterly dividend to 26.5 Canadian cents a share. In renewing the repurchase program, it authorized the purchase of up 10.6 million shares, or about 5 percent of shares outstanding, by February 14, 2013.

The company's shares were up 2.0 percent at C$40.63 on Thursday morning on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

($1=$0.99 Canadian)

(Reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto and Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore; Editing by Peter Galloway and Janet Guttsman)

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Malaria toll far higher than thought: study

Malaria kills more than 1.2 million people a year, nearly 50 percent more than previously thought, and inflicts a high toll among adults and older children and not just toddlers, a new investigation says.

But there is also good news: deaths from the mosquito-borne disease have in fact been falling sharply thanks to access to better drugs and insecticide-treated nets.

Published in The Lancet on Friday, the study by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle, says malaria killed at least 1.2 million people worldwide in 2010.

The estimate will be a likely shock for health policymakers. Only last September the UN-backed Roll Back Malaria (RBM) calculated mortality in 2009 at 781,000.

The higher figure, say the US researchers, derives from wider and more reliable data, including use of a technique called "verbal autopsy".

Under this, investigators interview relatives of someone who has recently died in order to help pinpoint the cause of death. In many poor countries which lack medical infrastructure, mortality is often poorly probed or misidentified.

The new study skewers the belief that the overwhelming majority of malaria deaths occur among the under-fives.

In 2010, more than 78,000 children aged five to 14, and more than 445,000 aged 15 or older, died of malaria, together accounting for 42 percent of the total.

"You learn in medical school that people exposed to malaria as children develop immunity and rarely die from malaria as adults," said lead researcher Christopher Murray.

"What we have found in hospital records, death records, surveys and other sources shows that just is not the case."

From 1985, says the paper, malaria deaths grew every year, peaking at 1.8 million in 2004.

But from 2004, the toll fell every year. Between 2007 and 2010, the decline has been particularly acute -- more than seven percent every year -- and the big beneficiary has been Africa.

Among the stars are Tanzania and Zambia, which saw deaths fall by more than 30 percent between 2004 and 2010.

The source of the decline lies in the increased use of artemisinin drugs, replacing medications to which the malaria parasite has become resistant, and the widening distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, says the probe.

The major players in this campaign are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, RBM and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Funding rose from less than 250 million dollars annually in 2001 to more than two billion in 2009.

"We have seen a huge increase in both funding and in policy attention given to malaria over the past decade, and it's having real impact," said Alan Lopez, a population health expert at the University of Queensland in Australia, who was a member of the research team.

The study warns of the dangers if the momentum is lost, especially in the shortfall of support for the Global Fund.

"There has been a rapid decrease in malaria mortality in Africa because of the scaling up of control activities supported by international donors," it says.

"Donor support, however, needs to be increased if malaria elimination and eradication and broader health and development goals are to be met."

In last September's estimate, RBM said mortality from malaria fell from 984,000 in 2000 to 781,000 in 2009, a decline of 38 percent if the world's population growth over this period is factored in.

The new study was funded by the Gates Foundation; however, the IHME is an independent research institution and The Lancet is a peer-reviewed journal.

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