Apple and Samsung return to court to battle over $1 billion verdict

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Breast Cancer Vaccine a Reality for Women With HER-2 Negative Cancers

COMMENTARY | NeuVax, a breast cancer vaccine, is entering phase III trials. The drug’s manufacturer, Galena Biopharma, announced on Dec. 5, that it signed a distribution deal with TEVA Pharmaceuticals. TEVA will handle the global commercialization and distribution of the drug once it is out of trials. It is about time this is moving forward. We need to make progress toward ending this disease.

What is NeuVax?

A vaccine called NeuVax is close to being a reality for breast cancer patients. NeuVax is a vaccine, the first of its kind, to prevent breast cancer from recurring. A recurrence is when breast cancer returns to the same breast. If breast cancer appears in the other breast, it is not a recurrence but a new cancer.

Most women have a 15-20 percent chance of breast cancer recurring, even after a mastectomy. The implications of the vaccine are huge. It reduces the chance of breast cancer recurrence in women with node-positive, HER-2 negative breast cancers. About 75 percent of all breast cancer is HER-2 negative. The vaccine is given after the standard course of treatment is completed. It is not a replacement for radiation or chemotherapy. I would gladly try a vaccine over the currently available long-term recurrence preventions — all are hormone based and carry awful side effects.

Phase III trials

Unfortunately for me, there are no trials available in Arkansas. Even if there were, I am not eligible because my cancer is HER-2 positive, and I am thankfully, node-negative. This means that the cancer is not in my lymph system. Phase III trials are when the drug is actually tested in random settings on humans. This drug seems to be very promising. Right now, phase III trials are open in the United States and Canada. Israel will have at least four phase III trials opening soon. You can see if there are trials near you at the NeuVax website.

This vaccine has the potential to replace hormone therapies like tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors. Both types of drugs have serious side effects. A vaccine, taken over the course of three years, reduces the time a patient needs to take medications and it helps to prevent recurrence. Hopefully the phase III trials go well and we get this vaccine available to breast cancer patients soon.

Lynda Altman was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2011. She writes a series for Yahoo! Shine called “My Battle With Breast Cancer.”

Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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NATO moving missiles, troops to Syria border

BEIRUT (AP) — As fears grow in the West that Syrian President Bashar Assad will unleash chemical weapons as an act of desperation, NATO moved forward Thursday with its plan to place Patriot missiles and troops along Syria's border with Turkey to protect against potential attacks.

Assad's regime blasted the move as "psychological warfare," saying the new deployment would not deter it from seeking victory over rebels it views as terrorists.

The missile deployment sends a clear message to Assad that consequences will follow if he uses chemical weapons or strikes NATO member Turkey, which backs the rebels seeking his ouster. But its limited scope also reflects the low appetite in Western capitals for direct military intervention in the civil war.

The U.S. and many European and Arab countries called for Assad to step down early in the uprising but have struggled to make that happen. Russia and China have protected Assad from censure by the U.N. Security Council, and the presence of extremists among the rebels makes the U.S. and others nervous about arming them.

In Dublin, Ireland, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joined Russia's foreign minister and the U.N. peace envoy to the Arab country for three-way talks that suggested Washington and Moscow were working toward a common strategy as the Assad regime weakens.

The diplomatic efforts to end the civil war come days after NATO agreed to post Patriot missiles and troops along Turkey's southern border with Syria after mortars and shells from Syria killed five Turks.

Germany's Cabinet approved the move on Thursday, and German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters that the overall mission is expected to include two batteries each from the Netherlands and the United States, plus 400 soldiers and monitoring aircraft.

"Nobody knows what such a regime is capable of and that is why we are acting protectively here," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that intelligence reports raise fears that an increasingly desperate Assad is considering using his chemical weapons arsenal — which the U.S. and Russia agree is unacceptable.

The Assad regime said the NATO deployment would not make Assad change course, calling the talk of chemical weapons part of a conspiracy to justify future intervention.

"The Turkish step and NATO's support for it are provocative moves that constitute psychological warfare," Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said in an interview with Lebanon's Al-Manar TV. "But if they think this will affect our determination and work for a decisive victory in this fight against terrorism, they are very wrong."

Syria has not confirmed it has chemicals weapons, while insisting that it would never use such arms against its own people.

"I repeat for the hundredth time that even if such weapons exist in Syria, they will not be used against the Syrian people," Mekdad said. "We cannot possibly commit suicide."

Analysts say the missile deployment sends a message to Assad to keep the war in his own country.

"There is an element there of deterrence, of coercive diplomacy," said Yezid Sayigh of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. "We won't go further if you don't go further."

Sayigh said it is possible that Syria, too, moved its chemical weapons to send a counter-message to the West.

Still, the missile deployment does not appear to be a step toward military intervention, he said, noting that no NATO member nations want to enter the war.

NATO officials said the Patriots will be programmed only to intercept Syrian weapons that enter Turkish airspace and will not be fired into Turkey preemptively. This means they would not target Syrian military activities that remain inside Syria.

The German Parliament is expected give its final approval in mid-December, and the Dutch are also expected to approve the move soon, allowing the plan to go ahead. Due to the complexity and size of the Patriot batteries, they will probably have to travel by sea and won't arrive in Turkey for another month.

In Syria, government forces shelled rebellious suburbs around the capital, Damascus. They also clashed with rebels in Damascus as well as in the northern city of Aleppo and elsewhere. Anti-regime activists say more than 40,000 have been killed since the country's crisis started with political protests in March 2011.

The fighting in Syria has enflamed tensions in neighboring Lebanon, where security officials said the toll in clashes between two neighborhoods in the northern city of Tripoli had risen to eight dead and more than 60 wounded.

The clashes between the two communities, which support opposite sides in Syria's civil war, started Monday, following reports that 17 Lebanese men were killed after entering Syria to fight alongside the rebels.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

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Associated Press writers David Rising in Berlin and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

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South Africa military plane crashes in mountains

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A South African military aircraft on an unknown mission to an area near the village where former President Nelson Mandela lives crashed in a mountain range, officials said Thursday. It was unclear whether there were any survivors.

The Douglas DC-3 Dakota, a twin-propeller aircraft, had taken off from Pretoria’s Waterkloof Air Force Base on Wednesday night, said Brig. Gen. Xolani Mabanga, a military spokesman. On Thursday morning, soldiers found the wreckage of the airplane in the Drakensberg mountains near Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal province, some 340 kilometers (210 miles) southeast of the air base, Mabanga said.

Mabanga said soldiers had been sent to the scene to look for survivors. Mabanga said he did not know what the mission of the aircraft was, though it had planned to land in Mthatha in the country’s Eastern Cape. Siphiwe Dlamini, a Defense Ministry spokesman, declined to immediately comment Thursday morning.

Mthatha is about 30 kilometers (17 miles) north of Qunu, the village where Mandela now lives after retiring from public life. South Africa‘s military remains largely responsible for the former president’s medical care. However, military officials declined to say whether those on board had any part in caring for Mandela.

In November, another South African military flight crash landed at Mthatha, sending several people to the hospital with injuries. However, at that time, the military denied that those on board had anything to do with Mandela’s care.

Mandela, 94, was imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against apartheid before becoming the nation’s president in the country’s first fully democratic vote in 1994.

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Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

Africa News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Latest James Bond movie breaks UK box office record

LONDON (Reuters) – “Skyfall“, the 23rd official James Bond movie, has become the most successful film in British box office history, earning 94.3 million pounds ($ 152 million), its producers said on Wednesday.

The tally, earned over 40 days, surpasses the previous record of 94.0 million pounds set by 2009 3D adventure film “Avatar” over its 11 month run in UK cinemas, although the figures do not take inflation into account.

Skyfall, which has been well received by critics, stars Daniel Craig in his third outing as 007, and is directed by Sam Mendes.

In it Bond and British spymaster M, played by Judi Dench, are pitted against technological wizard Silva (Javier Bardem) who is bent on revenge.

“We are very proud of this film and thank everybody, especially Daniel Craig and Sam Mendes, who have contributed to its success,” said co-producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli in a statement.

Globally, Skyfall has some way to go to match Avatar. It has earned $ 870 million in ticket sales around the world, according to movie tracking site Boxofficemojo.com, compared with Avatar’s record $ 2.8 billion.

According to the same website, Avatar’s adjusted box office total comes in at 14th in cinema history, with the 1939 classic “Gone With the Wind” in pole position.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Facebook’s Instagram cuts support for key Twitter integration

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s recently acquired photo-sharing service, Instagram, removed a key element of its integration with Twitter, signaling a deepening rift between two of the Web’s dominant social media companies.

Instagram’s Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said Wednesday his company turned off support for Twitter “cards” in order to drive Twitter users to Instagram’s own website. Twitter “cards” are a feature that allows multimedia content like YouTube videos and Instagram photos to be embedded and viewed directly within a Twitter message.

Instagram’s move marked the latest clash between Facebook and Twitter since April, when Facebook, the world’s no. 1 social network, outbid Twitter to nab fast-growing Instagram in a cash-and-stock deal valued at the time at $ 1 billion. The acquisition closed in September for roughly $ 715 million, due to Facebook’s recent stock drop.

The companies’ ties have been strained since. In July, Twitter blocked Instagram from using its data to help new Instagram users find friends.

Beginning earlier this week, Twitter’s users began to complain in public messages that Instagram photos did not seem to display properly on Twitter’s website.

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom confirmed Wednesday that his company had decided that its users should view photos on Instagram’s own Web pages and took steps to change its policies.

“We believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives,” Systrom said in a statement, citing recent improvements to Instagram’s website.

“A handful of months ago, we supported Twitter cards because we had a minimal web presence,” Systrom said, noting that the company has since released new features that allow users to comment about and “like” photos directly on Instagram’s website.

The move escalates a rivalry in the fast-growing social networking sector, where the biggest players have sought to wall off access to content from rival services and to their ranks of users. Photos are among the most popular features on both Facebook and Twitter, and Instagram’s meteoric rise in recent years has further proved how picture-sharing has become a key front in the battle for social Internet supremacy.

Instagram, which has 100 million users, allows consumers to tweak the photos they take on their smartphones and share the images with their friends, a feature that Twitter has reportedly also begun to develop. Twitter’s executive chairman Jack Dorsey was an investor in Instagram and hoped to acquire it before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tabled a successful bid.

When Zuckerberg announced the acquisition in an April blog post, he said one of Instagram’s strengths was its inter-connectivity with other social networks and pledged to continue running it as an independent service.

“We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks.”

A Twitter spokesman declined comment Wednesday, but a status message on Twitter’s website confirmed that users are “experiencing issues,” such as “cropped images” when viewing Instagram photos on Twitter.

Systrom noted that Instagram users will be able to “continue to be able to share to Twitter as they originally did before the Twitter Cards implementation.”

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic and Gerry Shih; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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With Teva at crossroads, new CEO set to unveil vision

NEW YORK/TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries‘ new Chief Executive Jeremy Levin has promised investors it will be a very different company going forward. Next week he has to prove it.

Levin’s ability to paint a bright future for the world’s biggest maker of generic drugs at a meeting with investors and analysts on December 11 in New York became a bit more difficult last week, when Teva issued a 2013 earnings forecast that fell short of Wall Street estimates.

Levin, a big pharma veteran, is expected to shift Teva’s focus to branded drugs even as its most important such product, top-selling multiple sclerosis treatment Copaxone, faces new competition and a 2015 patent expiration. Investors are also hoping for a meaningful boost to the annual dividend while new management works to jumpstart a stagnant share performance.

“I’ve made a lot of money in Teva and I’ve seen this company wither in front of my eyes,” said Dan Hunt, a co-portfolio manager for RCM Capital Management’s Wellness Fund. Hunt’s fund no longer includes Teva shares, but RCM has small Teva holdings.

“The most important signal (shareholders) need to hear on the record from Levin is ‘whatever it takes I will protect you’,” Hunt said, adding that Teva has not delivered for its shareholders in years.

Teva’s U.S. shares are up about 2 percent in 2012 after falling 22.6 percent in 2011. They are off 35 percent from a 2010 peak at about $ 64. Shareholders of smaller Teva rivals Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc and Mylan Inc have fared far better with Watson up about 45 percent this year and Mylan shares up about 27 percent over the same period.

Levin has taken some preemptive steps to placate investors ahead of the meeting by announcing that the company plans to cut $ 1.5 billion to $ 2 billion in costs over the next five years, streamline operations and discontinue some research programs.

Morgan Stanley estimated that Copaxone sales account for 58 percent of Teva’s projected 2013 earnings. Levin will have to reveal how he plans to make up for the anticipated decline in Copaxone revenue beyond cost-cutting efforts.

Generic drugs accounted for 56 percent of Teva’s revenue last year, but the company faces obstacles to generic growth in the United States, the world’s largest market.

Following a wave of major patent expirations, the number of multibillion-dollar drugs going generic will diminish after the next couple of years. And new generic drugs are facing competition sooner along with faster price declines. Generic drugs are also facing considerable price pressure in Europe.

SMALL ACQUISITIONS

South African-born Levin, a former senior vice president for strategy at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, took over as CEO of Israel’s biggest company in May, replacing Shlomo Yanai.

In five years at the helm, Yanai engineered a number of large acquisitions, including last year’s $ 6.5 billion purchase of U.S. drugmaker Cephalon, which has been viewed by some analysts as a disappointment. The company last month took a $ 481 million impairment charge related to the Cephalon deal.

Levin last week signaled a desire for more targeted acquisitions focused on Teva’s core areas of expertise, such as central nervous system disorders and respiratory diseases.

He has begun to whittle away at non-core businesses, selling Teva’s U.S. animal health unit to Bayer for up to $ 145 million. Investors said Teva needs to improve production efficiency and downsize or close some of its plants.

Levin, who implemented at Bristol-Myers a series of deals and alliances with small and large companies, has been credited with helping to guide Bristol through its enormous patent cliff as the blood clot preventer Plavix, which had been the world’s second biggest selling prescription medicine, lost exclusivity.

“The key is smart deals and getting an estimate of what a reasonable growth rate is going forward,” said Robert Caravella, equity research analyst for Victory Capital Management, which holds about $ 9 million in Teva convertible bonds.

“The biggest issue is there’s not an understanding of where revenue and earnings are going to go and how we’re going to get to that point,” he said.

BIGGER DIVIDEND?

Shareholders would also like to see Teva raise its dividend, which provides only a 2.5 percent return on the stock, below the industry average of about 4 percent. Alternatively, the company may decide to increase shareholder returns by boosting its $ 3 billion share buyback.

Steven Tepper, an analyst at brokerage Harel Finance, said Levin must demonstrate how Teva can again become a growth company or that it will be a value investment going forward through a significant dividend increase. “This plan will have to convince investors it’s making that move,” Tepper said.

RCM Capital’s Hunt said Levin must present “a strong, formed, clear strategic vision” of where the company is headed.

The question is whether it will be enough to convince disenchanted investors such as Stewart Capital, which has more than $ 1 billion in assets under management but sold its Teva holdings shortly after Levin took over.

Matthew DiFilippo, chief portfolio strategist for Stewart, was skeptical that one individual could effect the change necessary to transform Teva back into an industry darling. “So while we recognized his talents, we also recognized the challenges they face and we sold,” he said.

A lot of money remains on the sidelines waiting for what Levin has to say, said Ori Hershkovitz, managing partner at Israel-based pharmaceutical hedge fund Sphera. Levin needs to say he is committed to replenishing Teva’s branded pipeline and will do whatever it takes to replace those lost sales by 2016, Hershkovitz said, and he must “make the market believe it”.

(Additional reporting by Steven Scheer in Jerusalem; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)

Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Dems call Republicans 'hostage takers' on debt talks

Screen shot from GOPHostageTakers.com

House Democrats on Wednesday launched a new microsite, GOPHostageTakers.com, criticizing Republican leaders for not holding a vote to exclusively extend middle-income tax rates for another year as part of avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff.

Current tax rates for all income levels are set to automatically increase in 2013 unless Congress takes action this year. Most Republicans want to extend the current rates for all income levels, while Democrats want taxes to increase for households earning more than $250,000 annually.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched the site as part of a larger messaging effort to goad Republicans into voting on a bill that excludes those earning more than $250,000 from the rate extension.

This week, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, submitted a "discharge petition" that would force a vote on a bill to extend rates only for middle-class taxpayers, but only if she can persuade 218 members of the Republican-led House to sign it. (Realistically, it's unlikely.) On the microsite, House Democrats list the names of some Republicans they consider "vulnerable" who have declined to sign Pelosi's petition.

Earlier this year, the Republican-led House approved a bill to extend tax rates for all income brackets while the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a measure that extends them for households under the $250,000 level.

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Sri Lanka see backlash from Aussie ‘wounded soldiers’

(Reuters) – Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene has warned his team to be wary of a backlash from Australia in their three-test series after the hosts were stung by their series defeat to South Africa earlier this week.

Australia’s hopes of snatching the Proteas’ top test ranking ended in a crushing 309-run defeat in the third and final test in Perth on Monday, but Jayawardene took little comfort from the home side’s disappointment.

“I see them as wounded soldiers – they could come back stronger against us,” Jayawardene told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday, on the eve of a three-day tour match against a Chairman’s XI side.

“So we just need to make sure we are ready for that and start well.

“We can’t be complacent – we need to make sure we know from ball one we give them a good go at it.”

Sri Lanka have their own problems coming into the first test at Hobart next week, losing their last test at home to New Zealand by 167 runs to level a two-match series 1-1, with key batsmen out of form.

Kumar Sangakkara scored five, nought and 16 in his three innings against New Zealand, but Jayawardene backed the veteran to bounce back in Sri Lanka’s bid to win their first test Down Under.

“I am happy that he went through a lean phase because he’ll be really hungry for runs – that’s Kumar for you,” Jayawardene said of the 35-year-old stalwart.

Jayawardene also said he would weigh up his future as captain after the series, which includes tests in Melbourne and Sydney, after taking on the role for a second time in the wake of Tillakaratne Dilshan’s sudden resignation in January.

“After this, we get a well-deserved four weeks off, after about three years, so it gives me a bit of time to think (about) what I need to do,” said Jayawardene, who captained the team for more than three years in his first stint from 2006.

“We need to groom another leader as well. It’s very important to have that changeover done smoothly while the senior players are still in the side.”

Australia / Antarctica News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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“The Message” deemed greatest hip hop song ever

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The 1982 hit “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five was named the greatest hip hop song of all time on Wednesday, in the first such list by Rolling Stone magazine to celebrate the young but influential music genre.

“The Message,” which tops a list of 50 influential hip hop songs, was the first track “to tell, with hip hop‘s rhythmic and vocal force, the truth about modern inner-city life in America,” Rolling Stone said.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, a hip hop collective from the south Bronx in New York, was formed in 1978 and became one of the pioneers of the hip hop genre.

The full list spanned songs ranging from Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 hit “Rapper’s Delight,” which came in at No. 2, to Kanye West‘s 2004 hit “Jesus Walks,” which landed at No. 32.

“It’s a list that would have been a lot harder to do ten or 15 years ago because hip hop is so young,” Nathan Brackett, deputy managing editor of Rolling Stone, told Reuters.

“We’ve reached the point now where hip hop acts are getting into the (Rock and Roll) Hall Of Fame… it just felt like the right time to give this the real Rolling Stone treatment.”

Rolling Stone‘s top 10 featured mostly hip hop veterans, such as Run-D.M.C.’s 1983 track “Sucker M.C.’s,” Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s 1992 hit “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang,” Public Enemy’s 1990 song “Fight The Power” and Notorious B.I.G’s 1994 hit “Juicy.”

Other influential artists in the top 50 songs included Beastie Boys, who came in at No. 19 with “Paul Revere,” and recordings by Jay-Z, Eminem, Missy Elliot, Outkast, Lauryn Hill, LL Cool J, Nas and the late rapper 2Pac.

The list of 50 songs was compiled by a 33-panel of members comprising Rolling Stone editors and hip hop experts. They included musician Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of The Roots, who Brackett described as “an incredible encyclopedia” of both old and new hip hop knowledge.

Brackett noted that some songs considered to be one-hit wonders, such as Audio Two’s 1988 hit “Top Billin’,” made the final selection.

“The references in those songs become the building blocks of all these other songs down the road … they become touchstones, really part of the meat of hip hop songs going forward,” Brackett said.

The full list will be released online at RollingStone.com and in the pop culture magazine on newsstands on December7. The issue will feature four different covers of Eminem, Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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