The worlds largest insulin maker, Novo Nordisk, is cutting 1,000 jobs as a part of a plan to reduce costs as it faces a challenging environment in 2017, especially in the large U.S. market, the company said on Thursday. "We have concluded that it is needed in order for us to have a sustainable balance between income and costs," Chief Executive Lars Rebien Sorensen said in a statement.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are venting outrage over high prescription drug costs, but if Congress is looking for culprits, it might want to look in the mirror.

The worlds largest insulin maker, Novo Nordisk , is cutting 1,000 jobs as a part of a plan to reduce costs as it faces a challenging environment in 2017, especially in the large U.S. market, the company said on Thursday. "We have concluded that it is needed in order for us to have a sustainable balance between income and costs," Chief Executive Lars Rebien Sorensen said in a statement.

Investigators were searching on Thursday for the motive behind a shooting spree by a South Carolina teenager who killed his father and wounded two school students and a teacher before being pinned down by a volunteer fireman. The 14-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, shot and killed his father, Jeffrey DeWitt Osborne, 47, on Wednesday afternoon. Then he drove to Townville Elementary School, where he shot two boys and a woman teacher with a handgun, before being subdued by the volunteer firefighter, police said.

By Zeba Siddiqui HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - Centuries ago, Indian princes would bathe in the cool Kazhipally lake in Medak. Now, even the poorest villagers here in Indias baking south point to the barren banks and frothy water and say they avoid going anywhere near it. A short drive from the bustling tech hub of Hyderabad, Medak is the heart of Indias antibiotics manufacturing business: a district of about 2.5 million that has become one of the worlds largest suppliers of cheap drugs to most markets, including the United States.

By David Morgan and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress approved a stop-gap funding bill on Wednesday that averts a looming federal government shutdown and provides urgently needed money to help battle an outbreak of the Zika virus. Passage of the bipartisan legislation came shortly after Republicans and Democrats ended a months-long fight over whether Washington should provide aid to the city of Flint, Michigan, as it struggles with a crisis over contaminated drinking water. Separate legislation was approved by the House of Representatives earlier in the day setting aid for Flint.

A 14-year-old South Carolina boy shot and killed his father then drove to an elementary school playground where he wounded two children and a teacher with a handgun before being tackled by a firefighter who held him for police, authorities said on Wednesday. The suspect, whose name has not been released, was accused by police of fatally shooting his 47-year-old father, Jeffrey DeWitt Osborne, then driving a pickup truck about 2 miles (3.2 km) to Townville Elementary School where he crashed into a fence surrounding the playground. After the teenager began shooting, volunteer firefighter Jamie Brock pinned him down while staff led children to safety inside the building, Anderson County emergency services director Taylor Jones told a news conference.

By Jonathan Allen DURHAM, N.H. (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton shared a stage with former rival Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday to appeal for youth votes in the Nov. 8 election as opinion polls show a close race with Republican Donald Trump. Clinton told an audience at the University of New Hampshire that she would make college affordable if she wins the White House, the kind of promise that won Sanders many young supporters during the Democratic nominating contest. "We should and we will make public colleges tuition-free for families earning less than $125,000 a year," Clinton said.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The national fight over sugary soda is bubbling up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where voters in November will consider a tax on the drinks that many health experts say contribute to diabetes, obesity and tooth decay.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators have approved a first-of-a-kind "artificial pancreas," a device that can help some diabetes patients manage their disease by constantly monitoring their blood sugar and delivering insulin as needed.

The Congress moved closer on Wednesday to finishing a stop-gap funding bill that would avert a looming federal government shutdown, after Republicans and Democrats agreed to help Flint, Michigan, resolve its drinking water crisis. The Senate voted 72-26 to adopt the short-term continuing resolution, or CR, that would keep federal agencies operating from Saturday to Dec. 9. The vote sent the measure on to the House of Representatives, which was expected to approve it late on Wednesday.

Widely used prescription and non-prescription painkillers are associated with an increased risk of hospital admission for heart failure, according to a study released Thursday. The drugs in question are so-called NSAIDs, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including several known as COX-2 inhibitors. The broad link between the use of NSAIDs and heart failure is well established, but which drugs pose the greatest risk, and at what doses, remains poorly understood.

California Governor Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed a bill to end the statute of limitations for rape, a measure inspired by accusations against comedian Bill Cosby, some of which surfaced decades after alleged crimes occurred. Cosby, who built a long career on family friendly comedy, including his long-running NBC sitcom "The Cosby Show," has steadfastly denied ever assaulting anyone and has insisted that all his sexual encounters were consensual.

By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal health agency said on Wednesday it had "expressly advised" Mylan NV that the drugmaker had improperly classified its EpiPen emergency allergy treatment in a way that allowed it to pay lower rebates to state health programs. The disclosure comes as U.S. lawmakers and prosecutors are investigating Mylan over steep price hikes for the EpiPen device which have rendered the drug unaffordable for a growing number of families. A least one state has launched an investigation into whether Mylan failed to pay proper rebates to the Medicaid program for the poor.

A U.S. health agency said on Wednesday it had "expressly advised" Mylan that the company had misclassified the EpiPen in a way that led to the company paying a lower rebate to states. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement it has "on multiple occasions, provided guidance to the industry and Mylan on the proper classification of drugs and has expressly advised Mylan that their classification of EpiPen for purposes of the Medicaid Drug Rebate program was incorrect." Mylan classified the EpiPen with the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program as a non-innovator multiple source drug, which pays a rebate of 13 percent to states, rather than innovator, which pays a rebate of a minimum of 23.1 percent.

A cheap and easy to make synthetic bone material has been shown to stimulate new bone growth when implanted in the spines of rats and a monkeys skull, researchers said Wednesday. Human trials using the biomaterial, called Hyper-Elastic Bone (HB), could begin in the next five years, according to the research team from Northwestern University. "We knew this material had great mechanical properties and it was very easy and rapid to 3D print," said study author Adam Jakus, a researcher at Northwestern University, during a conference call with reporters.

By Ellen Francis and Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russian or Syrian warplanes knocked two hospitals out of service in the besieged rebel sector of Aleppo on Wednesday and ground forces intensified an assault in a battle which the United Nations said had made the city worse than a slaughterhouse. Two patients died in one of the hospitals and other shelling killed six residents queuing for bread under a siege that has trapped 250,000 people with food running out. "The warplane flew over us and directly started dropping its missiles ... at around 4 a.m.," Mohammad Abu Rajab, a radiologist at the M10 hospital, the largest trauma hospital in the citys rebel-held sector, told Reuters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators are asking the Justice Department to investigate whether pharmaceutical company Mylan acted illegally when it classified its life-saving EpiPen as a generic drug and qualified for lower rebate payments to states.

By Kieran Guilbert DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Living conditions for people uprooted by Boko Haram violence and seeking refuge in camps and towns across northeast Nigeria are more deadly than the conflict between the Islamist militants and the army, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Wednesday. Hunger and malnutrition is widespread among the displaced in Borno State, not just in remote, previously inaccessible areas, but also in the capital Maiduguri, the medical aid group said. Coordination of relief efforts must be drastically improved and food aid urgently delivered to people in need across Borno, where the humanitarian situation is reaching "catastrophic levels", said MSF emergency program manager Natalie Roberts.

Its World Heart Day on September 29, the World Heart Federations biggest day to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and how to maintain a healthy heart. In a 2015 study published in the journal Circulation, researchers from the Harvard University Chan School of Public Health found that those who drank three to five cups of coffee a day were less likely to die from heart disease, as well as a range of other diseases, when compared to those who drank no coffee, or less than two cups a day. For those who prefer tea, an American study published earlier this year found that tea drinkers could be 35% less likely to suffer a heart attack or another major cardiovascular event, with just one to three cups a day of either black or green tea shown to be beneficial.

Thai doctors are running tests to see whether Zika was the cause of microcephaly in two babies whose mothers are infected with the mosquito-borne virus, a health official said Wednesday. If the remaining pair are found to be linked, they could be the first case of Zika-related microcephaly in Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organisation. "It is too early to conclude if (the other two) had Zika, we need more information," said Apichai Mongkol, director general of the Department of Medical Sciences.