TASK DEFINITION: Given a paragraph, generate a claim that is supported by the given paragraph. 1) The claim must contain information from within the paragraph. 2) A sentence within the paragraph can be used as a claim. 3) The claim should not have contradictions within the paragraph. 4) The claim should be at most one sentence long.
PROBLEM: One new study found that heart attack survivors benefited from a medicine long used to treat gout. Several experimental drugs also showed early promise for interfering with heart-harmful genes without modifying the genes themselves in one case, with treatment just twice a year. The research was featured at an American Heart Association conference ending Monday in Philadelphia. "There's a lot of excitement" about the new gene-targeting medicines, especially because they seem to last so long, said Dr. Karol Watson, of the University of California, Los Angeles. Scientists have been exploring gene therapy altering DNA to attack the root cause of many diseases. The new drugs essentially accomplish the same thing without tampering with genes, said the University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Daniel Rader, who has consulted for some makers of these drugs. The medicines work by silencing or blocking messages that genes give to cells to make proteins that can do harm, such as allowing cholesterol to accumulate. The first few of these "RNA-interference" drugs recently were approved for other conditions, and research is also targeting heart disease. Farthest along is inclisiran, tested in 1,561 people with heart disease from clogged arteries who still had high LDL, the bad form of cholesterol, despite taking standard drugs. They were given a shot of inclisiran or a dummy drug when they joined the study, three months later and then every six months. The drug lowered LDL by 56% without serious side effects. More testing will show whether it also lowers heart attacks and other problems, not just cholesterol. Inclisiran's maker, The Medicines Company, plans to seek federal approval for it later this year. Two other RNA interference drugs aim at a different target triglycerides, another fat in the blood that's elevated in one quarter of Americans. Treatments include very low-fat diets, weight loss, fish oil and drugs, but doctors say more and better therapies are needed. Each RNA interference drug was tested at various doses in 40 people. A single shot lowered triglycerides by 30% to 67%, and the benefit lasted for at least four months. The studies were just intended to show safety; Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals is developing both drugs. Other research found new benefits from older drugs. AstraZeneca's Farxiga, originally developed to treat diabetes, also lowered the risk of heart problems in heart failure patients who did not have diabetes. Among 2,605 of such patients treated for 18 months, about 9% of those on Farxiga had worsening heart failure or heart-related death versus nearly 13% of those not given the drug. That worked out to a 27% lower risk, without extra serious side effects. Surprising benefits also were seen in a Canadian study of the decades-old gout drug. The anti-inflammatory drug colchicine sold as Colcrys, Mitigare and in generic form was tested in 4,745 people who recently had a heart attack. After about two years, colchicine users had a 23% lower risk of suffering a new heart attack, heart-related death, stroke, cardiac arrest or urgent need for an artery-opening procedure compared with a group given dummy pills. The benefit came mostly from preventing strokes and artery-opening procedures, and some heart doctors would rather have seen more difference in heart attacks and deaths. Colchicine is being tested in several other studies, and more evidence is needed before using it routinely to lower heart risks, Dr. L. Kristin Newby of Duke University wrote in a commentary published with the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, a Northwestern University cardiologist and program chief for the heart conference, was more supportive. "When you have a safe drug that's easily available, it's going to be hard to hold this one back," he said. ___ Marilynn Marchione can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

SOLUTION: New, old drugs may offer fresh ways to fight heart disease.

PROBLEM: In his private practice, Ian Paterson lied to exaggerate risks that patients would develop breast cancer, performing needless surgery and in some cases mastectomies for which patients paid, judge Jeremy Baker said. "The physical, and particularly, psychological effect upon each of them, has been profound," the judge told Nottingham Crown Court. The trial had heard that patients trusted the doctor who was charming and reassuring, but were later left feeling violated and vulnerable, with some having suffered prolonged psychological distress. The 59-year-old surgeon's motives were not clear, the judge said, but he had shown a "complete lack of remorse" during the trial. "I have no doubt that in pursuit of your own self-aggrandizement and the material rewards which it brought from your private practice, you lost sight of the fact that you were carrying out significant surgical procedures," Baker said. "Without any regard for the long-term effects which it had on them, you deliberately played upon their worst fears," he said. Speaking after the sentencing, Patricia Welch, one of Paterson's victims, said she felt justice had been done but called for an inquiry so that patients had full protection when seeking private medical care. "We will never know the real reason he has acted in such an evil way," she told reporters outside the court. "It will never go away because you just see it in the mirror every morning."

SOLUTION: UK doctor jailed for 15 years over unnecessary breast surgery.

PROBLEM: Roche has filed several lawsuits in U.S. federal court in which it alleges individuals and companies obtained low-priced diabetes test strips meant for mail-order customers, only to re-direct them for sale via pharmacies where higher prices allowed them to profit from the difference. "Defendants caused Roche to wrongfully pay over $87 million in rebates and to lose a similar amount of sales of retail strips," according to Roche's complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey on Tuesday against more than a dozen defendants including Jeffrey C. Smith, chief executive at Utah's Alliance Medical Holdings until 2017. In Utah, where Alliance Medical filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017 after a raid by federal agents seeking evidence of potential healthcare fraud, Roche contends Smith and others from 2011 to 2017 sought fraudulent reimbursements for 1.84 million 50-count boxes of Roche diabetes test strips. Smith did not immediately return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment. For America's 30 million people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and prick their fingers daily, blood glucose test strips help keep their glucose levels in check, preventing blindness, heart disease or death. These plastic strips are costly, running to $160 for boxes of 100 and creating incentives for a "grey market" away from formal retail channels that strip makers contend is vulnerable to fraud and safety concerns. In a separate U.S. lawsuit in Michigan, Roche alleges executives at another medical supply companies used a similar test-strip flipping scheme to cheat it out of $84 million. (This story has been refiled to switch order of third, fourth paragraphs to provide full first reference to defendant)

SOLUTION:
Roche sues U.S. executives in fight over diabetes test strips.