Obama firm on tax rates amid Republican infighting

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama  dangled the possibility on Tuesday of lowering tax rates in 2013 with a broad U.S. tax code revamp, but he stood firm on insisting rates for the wealthiest must rise as part of a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff," a series of budget cuts and tax increases that will begin taking effect on December 31 unless Congress acts.Congressional Republicans,...

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Medicare Open Enrollment Period Comes to a Close on Dec. 7

Oklahoma residents age 65 or older and disabled residents have until midnight Friday to make their choices for supplement health insurance and/or prescription drug coverage -- as do the residents in the rest of the nation.Medicare Open Enrollment 2012Medicare recipients have the opportunity to choose whether or not to add additional health care coverage to that which Medicare provides during the...

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Chelsea's hypotension drug fails to prove efficacy past week one

(Reuters) - Chelsea Therapeutics Inc said its experimental hypotension drug met the main goal of a study by significantly reducing dizziness in patients at week one, but results beyond that period were not statistically significant.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve the drug, Northera, in March, and asked for data that proved it was effective over two to three months.The company's...

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Obama firm on "fiscal cliff" amid Republican disarray

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama held his ground on the "fiscal cliff" on Tuesday, insisting on higher tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, while Republicans showed increasing disarray over how far they should go to compromise with Obama's demands.With less than a month left to confront the budget cuts and tax increases that will begin taking effect in January unless Congress acts,...

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Both sides dig in on "fiscal cliff," but "nothing going on"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans and Democrats dug in on "fiscal cliff" talks on Wednesday, with both sides urging quick action but offering no compromises in a political stare-down that shows no signs of breaking.Less than a month before the onset of spending cuts and tax increases that start to take effect in January unless Congress acts, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives called...

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Ariad drug proves effective in curbing chronic leukemia in study

(Reuters) - An experimental leukemia drug from Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc eliminated the cancer from the bone marrow  of nearly half of patients with a chronic form of the disease who had stopped responding to other drugs, according to a 12-month follow-up of a pivotal drug trial.The trial of the drug, ponatinib, which involved 444 patients, including 267 with chronic myeloid leukemia who had...

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Pfizer/Bristol drug cuts recurrence of blood clots - study

(Reuters) - A new blood clot preventer from Pfizer Inc and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co reduced the risk of recurrence of clots in veins and lungs and death by 80 percent with no increase in major bleeding in a study testing extended use of the drug.In the year-long trial of 2,486 patients who had been previously treated for the condition known as venous thromboembolism (VTE) the drug, apixaban, met the...

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Roche breast cancer drug extends overall survival

ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss pharma group Roche's drug Perjeta significantly extended the lives of women with an aggressive and incurable form of breast cancer compared to a placebo, according to new data from a late-stage study presented on Saturday.The detailed data presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium found that the risk of death was reduced by 34 percent in women treated with a combination...

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FDA panel opposes recommending painkiller, cites safety

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel of outside experts voted against recommending Zogenix Inc's Zohydro painkiller for FDA approval on Friday, citing concerns about the danger of addiction posed by the drug class known as opioids.But FDA officials said the regulatory agency could still approve the drug for sale in the United States by imposing restrictions to protect...

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