FDA OKs Merck OTC version of overactive bladder drug

(Reuters) - Health regulators approved Merck & Co's nonprescription version of Oxytrol to treat overactive bladder in women ages 18 and older, the agency said on Friday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the over-the-counter version of Oxytrol would be available for women only and that the drug remained available to men by prescription.

Overactive bladder, which affects an estimated 33 million Americans, is a condition in which the bladder squeezes too often or without warning. Symptoms include leaking urine, feeling a sudden and urgent need to urinate, and frequent urination.

Oxytrol for Women is a patch that contains oxybutynin, a medicine that helps relax the bladder muscle, and is designed to be applied to the skin every four days, the FDA said.

Oxybutynin belongs to a class of drugs known as anticholinergics. Pfizer Inc's Detrol is the market leader in the class with annual sales of about $700 million.

Oxytrol will be the first drug in the class to be sold over the counter. Merck licensed exclusive rights to sell OTC Oxytrol from Actavis Inc, the generic drugmaker formerly known as Watson Pharmaceuticals.

Merck said it expected the OTC patch to be available in the fall.

The FDA decided to approve the OTC version of the Merck drug, based on the results of nine studies of women that demonstrated that consumers can understand the information on the label, properly determine whether the product is right for them, and use the drug appropriately, the agency said.

Last week, the FDA approved the popular wrinkle treatment Botox from Allergan Inc to treat overactive bladder in people who cannot tolerate drugs from the class to which Oxytrol belongs or are not helped by these medications.

Merck shares rose 3 cents to $43.03 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-oks-over-counter-version-merck-overactive-bladder-163613723--finance.html

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Dung beetles guided by Milky Way

24 January 2013 Last updated at 12:34 ET By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

They may be down in the dirt but it seems dung beetles also have their eyes on the stars.

Scientists have shown how the insects will use the Milky Way to orientate themselves as they roll their balls of muck along the ground.

Humans, birds and seals are all known to navigate by the stars. But this could be the first example of an insect doing so.

The study by Marie Dacke is reported in the journal Current Biology.

"The dung beetles are not necessarily rolling with the Milky Way or 90 degrees to it; they can go at any angle to this band of light in the sky. They use it as a reference," the Lund University, Sweden, researcher told BBC News.

Dung beetles like to run in straight lines. When they find a pile of droppings, they shape a small ball and start pushing it away to a safe distance where they can eat it, usually underground.

Getting a good bearing is important because unless the insect rolls a direct course, it risks turning back towards the dung pile where another beetle will almost certainly try to steal its prized ball.

Dr Dacke had previously shown that dung beetles were able to keep a straight line by taking cues from the Sun, the Moon, and even the pattern of polarised light formed around these light sources.

But it was the animals' capacity to maintain course even on clear Moonless nights that intrigued the researcher.

So the native South African took the insects (Scarabaeus satyrus) into the Johannesburg planetarium where she could control the type of star fields a beetle might see overhead.

Importantly, she put the beetles in a container with blackened walls to be sure the animals were not using information from landmarks on the horizon, which in the wild might be trees, for example.

The beetles performed best when confronted with a perfect starry sky projected on to the planetarium dome, but coped just as well when shown only the diffuse bar of light that is the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Dr Dacke thinks it is the bar more than the points of light that is important.

"These beetles have compound eyes," she told the BBC. "It's known that crabs, which also have compound eyes, can see a few of the brightest stars in the sky. Maybe the beetles can do this as well, but we don't know that yet; it's something we're looking at. However, when we show them just the bright stars in the sky, they get lost. So it's not them that the beetles are using to orientate themselves."

And indeed, in the field, Dr Dacke has seen beetles run in to trouble when the Milky Way briefly lies flat on the horizon at particular times of the year.

The question is how many other animals might use similar night-time navigation.

It has been suggested some frogs and even spiders are using stars for orientation. The Lund researcher is sure there will be many more creatures out there doing it; scientists just need to go look.

"I think night-flying moths and night-flying locusts could benefit from using a star compass similar to the one that the dung beetles are using," she said.

But for the time being, Dr Dacke is concentrating on the dung beetle. She is investigating the strange dance the creature does on top of its ball of muck. The hypothesis is that this behaviour marks the moment the beetle takes its bearings.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21150721#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Why You Should Put Off the Relationship Talk | Love & Sex | GalTime

When should you have the relationship talk? Maybe never.

So you're wondering what's going on between you and the person you're dating. You want to know what the?deal?is. Where things?stand. You think it's time to have the conversation.

Don't do it. In fact, delay that conversation as long as you possibly can, maybe indefinitely. Why? Because the first person who brings it up loses.

The need to "have the talk" may seem all mature and adult, but really, it's just you scratching an insecure itch. You need "to know." I counter with this: If you're having a fun, great, sexy time, why, oh, why would you drop those dreaded words, "Where is this going?" It's the relationship equivalent of walking into the middle of a great party, turning off the music, flipping on all the lights, and saying, "So, I just want to check. Is everyone having a good time?"

I did this a few years back. I regret it and would never do it now. I had been seeing the guy a few weeks. He was a bit of a tough read, and I got insecure. I thought I?d help things along or feel better by asking, ?So, what is the deal--I mean, are we seeing other people, or?? It was a moment of weakness. Big mistake. The whole tenuous, if promising, thing collapsed on itself a short while later. And while that wasn't the only reason, I sped it to its short and brutish end. Like driving into a wall at 60 mph.

I've also been on the other side, by the way, many times. I gently tried to back off this very conversation with partners because it felt like I was being asked to make a decision I wasn't ready to make. I felt pressured to say what I think he wanted to hear and, if that's your idea of honesty, well, it's not. I've often found myself marking time FROM THIS TALK, wondering who would be the one to bail out first. Why create this pressure when you're really trying to get to know someone? Keep it a little gray--a little mysterious. This is how you keep that intrigue alive.

RELATED?5 Reasons to Answer That Booty Call

Ask yourself this: Why do I need to ask? What do I really want to know? What do I hope to accomplish??And while I can?t purport to read your mind, I?ll assume you?re craving what most humans do: significance and security. You want to know what?s going on, not because you?re conducting an investigation, but because you want to assuage the nagging fear and be reassured that you are special. You already are--can't you tell??Nothing?is totally secure in love and life, and no one owes you a sense of security.

And if your reason is that you're afraid he'll meet someone else? He could meet someone else regardless. There's always that risk. What would happen if you held off on the grand summit meeting and just enjoyed the person without worrying about how to categorize or title or otherwise claim him? You get the best of both of you--and your own privacy, too.

"But I want us to be honest with each other!", you cry. You can and should be open and communicative, yes. But unless you're about to close on a house together or do something else that's legally binding (like marriage), there's nothing to be gained by this conversation. What you want is to have him (or her) keep showing up. Now's not the time to ask him to sign the paperwork so you can issue him an official badge. He doesn't need one.

RELATED?Should You Ask Him Out?

Also: Don't confuse honesty with security. You think that if you know more about what's going on under the hood you'll feel better, but that may not be the case.?Do you really want to know he likes you a lot but is getting over a crush from last summer, or that his ex-girlfriend has been calling again? Does he want to know you're sort of weaning off this other guy? No, no, and no. Not your biz, not his problem. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you keep choosing to spend time with and enjoy each other. It's the actions that matter, not the?definition?of those actions. You don't have to kick the tires every two seconds. Just?drive.

Oh--and screw your Facebook status. Honestly. If you're making relationship decisions so you can click a box, I fear for your future. Because checking a box has driven more than one person into relationships--and marriages--that shouldn't have happened. Labeling your life isn't the same as living it.

Case in point: A client of mine has kindled a connection with a man who lives states away, and a good chunk of the year overseas. She wants to know if he?s her boyfriend or if he could be, and worries that by not nailing it down that she?s succumbing to game playing. I tell her, in fact, she?s not a pawn in some game; she?s very much in control of her actions. And yes, it?is?a game?and the goal is to?keep the ball in play.?You do this by maintaining a rich and vital connection, staying in touch and letting that person know you?re very much interested. As soon as she tries to get him to submit to certain rules or titles, I warned her she?ll scare him away, and he?s already far away.

Let's get one thing straight: That discomfort you feel? That excitement? It exists due to the simple fact that things are NOT SET YET. Enjoy it. Don't suck the life out of it in an effort to make it shelf stable. If you're still with this guy 10 years from now, there will be a point, sooner than you think, when you'll wonder where the magic went. This nervousness and thrill is par for the course?and trust me, you?ll miss it when it?s gone.

?More from GalTime.com:

Terri Trespicio is a lifestyle and relationship expert, writer, and coach. Visit her at www.trespicio.com.?

Source: http://galtime.com/article/love-sex/64143/52883/why-you-should-put-relationship-talk

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There Are Some Battles Bezos Can't Win

Today's XKCD puts the success of Amazon.com into some perspective. Because I can't do any better than Randall Monroe's hilarious alt text: More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KtlzhF1hjzw/there-are-some-battles-bezos-cant-win

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Apple revenue miss to challenge stocks rally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened lower on Thursday, a day after Apple Inc reported revenue that missed expectations, tanking the stock and weighing on technology shares.

As the most valuable U.S. company and a heavy weight in both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 <.ndx>, a decline in Apple shares has an outsized impact on the broader market. Apple dropped 10.5 percent to $459.84 in early trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 21.73 points, or 0.16 percent, at 13,801.06. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 2.16 points, or 0.14 percent, at 1,492.65. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 24.98 points, or 0.79 percent, at 3,128.69.

(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-signal-losses-eyes-apple-101831880--finance.html

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alponas: JHS AP Biology: Big Idea 1 | faytisu3faytisu3

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Source: http://faytisu3.blogspot.com/2013/01/alponas-jhs-ap-biology-big-idea-1.html

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Tournament of THG Couples: J. Lo & Casper Smart vs. Miley Cyrus & Liam Hemsworth!

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