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Type 1 diabetics, who run the risk of dangerously low blood sugar, may be a step closer to getting help from a crude artificial pancreas device that can read blood sugar levels and automatically turn off the flow of insulin after a clinical trial showed the device is safe. The long-awaited results of the clinical trial may pave the way for U.S. approval of the device, made by Medtronic, which already sells insulin pumps with an automatic shutoff feature in 50 countries outside the United States. The feature is meant to guard against delivering insulin to diabetics their blood sugar is already too low.   As many as 3 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, in which the immune system destroys cells in the pancreas that make insulin. Type 1 diabetes must monitor their blood sugar and take insulin several times a day. Too little insulin can cause high blood sugar, increasing the risk of long-term complications such as eye damage, kidney failure and heart disease. But too much insulin

A new and deadly strain of bird flu that emerged in China in February but seems to have petered out in recent months could reappear later this year when the warm season comes to an end - and could spread internationally, scientists said on Monday. A study by researchers in China and Hong Kong found only one human case of the H7N9 bird flu strain has been identified since early May.   In the preceding months, the virus, which was unknown in humans until February, has infected more than 130 people in China and Taiwan, killing 37 of them, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). "The warm season has now begun in China, and only one new laboratory-confirmed case of H7N9 in human beings has been identified since May 8, 2013," the researchers wrote in a study published in The Lancet medical journal. But they added: "If H7N9 follows a similar pattern to H5N1, the epidemic could reappear in the autumn." H5N1 is another deadly strain of bird flu which emerge

Shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd fell as much as 2.3 percent on Monday after newspaper Business Standard reported the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had raised concerns about a plant in northern India, citing unidentified sources. _0"> Business Standard said the FDA had issued form 483 to Ranbaxy regarding its Mohali plant. That form is issued when U.S. inspectors see conditions they believe may violate U.S. rules. A Ranbaxy spokesman declined to comment when asked if the drug maker had received the 483 form.   "We continue to make regulatory submissions from Mohali and will commercialize products from Mohali when we get approvals," he said. The U.S. FDA was not immediately reachable for comment. Ranbaxy shares were down 1.8 percent at 0355 GMT (11.55 p.m. EDT Sunday), compared with a 0.7 percent fall in the broader NSE index. (Reporting by Kaustubh Kulkarni and Rafael Nam; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

Sandoz, the generics unit of Novartis, has launched a late-stage trial with its biosimilar version of Amgen's Enbrel, consolidating its leading position in developing cheaper copies of complex biotech drugs. _0"> With the start of the major study of its version of Enbrel, or etanercept, Sandoz now has seven Phase III clinical trials across five biosimilar molecules - more than any other company in the industry.   Sandoz said on Monday the new trial aimed to confirm the biosimilarity of its product versus Enbrel in patients with moderate to severe chronic plaque-type psoriasis. Results will be used to support U.S. and European regulatory filings. Unlike traditional chemical drugs, biotech medicines consist of proteins derived from living organisms that cannot be replicated exactly. Generic copies, therefore, are more difficult to develop and market. IMS Health, a provider of data for the healthcare industry, expects global spending on biosimilars to increase to between

SMA Solar, Germany's largest solar company, is launching an battery set that will allow households to store surplus daytime solar energy for use in the evening, cutting energy bills. German households pay some of the highest prices in Europe for electricity because they pick up much of the cost of subsidizing cleaner energy production.   SMA Solar, which is up against fierce Asian competition, says it can help owners of solar panels use more of their self-generated power. It is Germany's largest solar company and the world's largest maker of solar inverters, a component that helps to feed solar-generated energy into the electricity grid. The company says its combined inverter battery will give a four-person household up to three hours of extra energy during the evening. The device will go on the market in the second half of this year. "The discussion is no longer about returns from solar panel installations, as was the case in the past. People now want to know h

No pilot was required when the Aeryon Scout took off into the leaden skies of Alaska to inspect a stretch of oil pipeline. The miniature aircraft was guided by an engineer on the ground, armed only with a tablet computer. The 20-minute test flight, conducted by BP Plc last fall, was a glimpse of a future where oil and gas companies in the Arctic can rely on unmanned aircraft to detect pipeline faults, at a fraction of the cost of piloted helicopter flights.   It could become reality as soon as 2015, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) opens up American skies for the commercial use of unmanned aircraft, popularly known as drones. While technical shortcomings and strict regulation are likely to limit the use of drones in the near term, the rules governing public airspace will be more relaxed in the wilderness of Alaska than in the lower 48 states, industry experts say. "We're going to take baby steps," said Gary Shane, a consultant who works as a senior pro

Indonesia deployed military planes on Friday to fight forest fires that blanketed neighboring Singapore in record levels of hazardous smog for a third day in one of Southeast Asia's worst air-pollution crises. As Singaporeans donned face masks and pulled children from playgrounds and Malaysia closed schools in the south, the deliberately-lit fires grew bigger in some areas. Whipped up by winds, the blazes added to fears over health problems and diplomatic tension in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. "The winds are picking up and the weather isn't very good at the moment, so the fires in some places are getting bigger," said Gunawan, a firefighter who like many Indonesians goes by one name. "We are working as hard as possible to control the fires...but we're facing difficult conditions." Indonesia blamed eight companies, including Jakarta-based PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART) and Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL), for