The U.S. Food and Drug Administration notified the public that Botox and Botox Cosmetic (Botulinum toxin Type A) and Myobloc (Botulinum toxin Type B) have been linked in some cases to adverse reactions, including respiratory failure and death, following treatment of a variety of conditions using a wide range of doses.

SIMID is the first in Europe to use a single centralized databank to bring scientific-medical full-text publications within easy reach. Through S.M.I.L.E. (Scientific Medical Information Library Europe), medical professionals can search for and download original publications and reviews online, from prominent international peer-reviewed medical scientific journals. Currently, the database contains more than 1000 journals from 28 internationally renowned publishers.

The EU-funded project DRUID (Driving under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol and Medicine) project is tackling the question of what impact psychoactive substances have on traffic safety. In order to gather reliable information in this area, where knowledge is still limited according to the project partners, the University of Ghent, Belgium, has started collecting blood and saliva samples from drivers involved in accidents, as well as drivers stopped for random checks.

Manhattan Research, a leader in syndicated research and marketing services for the health and pharmaceutical industry, today revealed the top pharmaceutical branded product websites ranked by offline requests by U.S. adult consumers. The product site rankings are based on the comprehensive online consumer research study with 5,112 U.S. adults titled ePharma Consumer® v7.0: The Future of Integrated DTC Marketing.

World Pharma News project is launching a Web 2.0 pharmaceutical news platform, named as well World Pharma News but with attached '.net' extension. Web 2.0 generally represents knowledge-oriented social-networking platforms focused first of all on collaborative approaches.

More than half a million Europeans suffer from disorders in or serious defects of some part of their bone structure. So, graft or implant operations needed to repair the damage depend decisively on the materials used. The Nanobiocom project, funded under the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), is working on the regeneration and repair of bone tissue.

The Commission has requested the advice of the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health risks (SCENIHR) on the assessment of the antibiotic resistance effects of biocides. To ensure that the SCENIHR formulates its views on the basis of the most complete relevant information, the Commission has published a call for the submission of information regarding quantities of biocides used in various applications and regarding possible changes in microbial flora.