FDA Warns About Asthma Drug, Xolair

The FDA is calling for a "black box" label warning for the asthmaasthma drug Xolair, alerting users it can cause potentially life-threatening allergic reactions.

The FDA issued the alert after reviewing 48 cases of anaphylaxis -- life-threatening allergic reactions - submitted to the agency from June 2003, when Xolair was approved, through December 2005.

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Thailand approves copycat drugs

Thailand government said today it had approved a cheap, copycat heart disease drug, the first time a developing country has ignored an international patent for such a treatment.

As well as the "compulsory licence" of Plavix, made by US and European pharmaceutical giants Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis, Bangkok approved a generic version of Abbott Laboratories' Kaletra to treat HIV/AIDS.

"We have to do this because we don't have enough money to buy safe and necessary drugs for the people under the government's universal health scheme," Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla told reporters today.

The move, was critised by the drug industrya and praised from AIDS activists.

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