Drug firm Cipla today said an anti-malarial drug developed by Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) has received pre-qualification from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The Mumbai-headquartered firm is manufacturing the fixed dose combination drug of Artesunate and Mefloquine (ASMQ FDC) under a technology transfer agreement with Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi).

This Cipla-manufactured ASMQ FDC is the first artesunate-mefloquine FDC to be prequalified by WHO and is recommended for the treatment of malaria, Cipla said in a statement.

`Pre-qualification` is a process under which drug companies have to fulfil certain WHO-stipulated conditions to become eligible to supply vaccines to UN procurement agencies globally.

"The prequalification announcement is recognition that ASMQ FDC meets WHO`s high quality standards and we aim to make this treatment widely available throughout Asia," Cipla Medical Director Jaideep Gogtay said.

ASMQ FDC was originally developed by DNDi and the Brazilian government-owned pharmaceutical company Farmanguinhos/Fiocruz and was registered in Brazil in 2008.

A technology transfer between Farmanguinhos and Cipla was achieved in 2010 to facilitate the implementation of ASMQ FDC in Asia.

The combination of AS and MQ is one of five Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs) currently recommended by WHO for the treatment of uncomplicated P falciparum malaria, and is the first-line treatment in a number of South East Asian countries.

"The availability of ASMQ FDC will have a direct impact on patients, especially in Asia," DNDi Executive Director Bernard Pecoul said.

ASMQ FDC was registered in India in 2011 and in Malaysia in early 2012. In India, about 18,000 adult patients have already been treated with this combination.

The ASMQ FDC is manufactured in Cipla`s Patalganga facility, which is approved by WHO-Geneva, US FDA, MHRA-UK and various other regulatory bodies.

A prequalified status makes ASMQ FDC eligible to tenders that receive funding from international procurement agencies, such as UNICEF and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Shares of Cipla today closed at Rs 381.10 on the BSE, up 0.24 per cent from its previous close.

Men with shaved heads are perceived to be more masculine, dominant and, in some cases, to have greater leadership potential than those with longer locks or with thinning hair, according to a recent study out of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

That may explain why the power-buzz look has caught on among business leaders in recent years. Venture capitalist and Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, 41 years old, DreamWorks Animation SKG Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, 61, and Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeffrey Bezos, 48, all sport some variant of the close-cropped look.

Some executives say the style makes them appear younger or at least, makes their age less evident and gives them more confidence than a comb-over or monk-like pate.

"I'm not saying that shaving your head makes you successful, but it starts the conversation that you've done something active," says tech entrepreneur and writer Seth Godin, 52, who has embraced the bare look for two decades. "These are people who decide to own what they have, as opposed to trying to pretend to be something else."

Wharton management lecturer Albert Mannes conducted three experiments to test peoples' perceptions of men with shaved heads. In one of the experiments, he showed 344 subjects photos of the same men in two versions: one showing the man with hair and the other showing him with his hair digitally removed, so his head appears shaved.

In all three tests, the subjects reported finding the men with shaved heads as more dominant than their hirsute counterparts. In one test, men with shorn heads were even perceived as an inch taller and about 13% stronger than those with fuller manes. The paper, "Shorn Scalps and Perceptions of Male Dominance," was published online, and will be included in a coming issue of journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

The study found that men with thinning hair were viewed as the least attractive and powerful of the bunch, a finding that tracks with other studies showing that people perceive men with typical male-pattern baldness which affects roughly 35 million Americans as older and less attractive. For those men, the solution could be as cheap and simple as a shave.

According to Wharton's Dr. Mannes who says he was inspired to conduct the research after noticing that people treated him more deferentially when he shaved off his own thinning hair head shavers may seem powerful because the look is associated with hypermasculine images, such as the military, professional athletes and Hollywood action heroes like Bruce Willis. (Male-pattern baldness, by contrast, conjures images of "Seinfeld" character George Costanza.)

New York image consultant Julie Rath advises her clients to get closely cropped when they start thinning up top. "There's something really strong, powerful and confident about laying it all bare," she says, describing the thinning or combed-over look as "kind of shlumpy."

The look is catching on. A 2010 study from razor maker Gillette, a unit of Procter & Gamble Co., found that 13% of respondents said they shaved their heads, citing reasons as varied as fashion, sports and already thinning hair, according to a company spokesman. HeadBlade Inc., which sells head-shaving accessories, says revenues have grown 30% a year in the past decade.

Shaving his head gave 60-year-old Stephen Carley, CEO of restaurant chain Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc., a confidence boost when he was working among 20-somethings at tech start-ups in the 1990s. With his thinning hair shorn, "I didn't feel like the grandfather in the office anymore." He adds that the look gave him "the impression that it was much harder to figure out how old I was."

Not everyone needs a buzz. Rick Devine, 55, the CEO of Devine Capital Partners, a Redwood City, Calif., executive-recruitment firm that specializes in the tech industry, advises executive candidates tempted by their clippers to keep their hair closely cropped, rather than completely shaved. "It is way too much image risk," he says. "The best thing you can do in a business meeting is to make your look not an issue."

The cue-ball style can strike some as menacing, so Mr. Carley makes an extra effort to appear friendly and accessible when meeting people for the first time or "at least as nonthreatening as a 6-foot-1-inch bald guy can be," he says.

Some consolation for male-pattern-baldness sufferers: Looking older can be helpful in the workplace. Just as older silverback gorillas are "typically the powerful actors in their social groups" in the wild, so it goes in the office, where a bald head may "signal who is in charge and potentially dangerous," says Caroline Keating, a Colgate University social psychologist who studies dominance.

Other physical features that signal dominance include narrow eyes and lips, as well as broad faces and square jaws. For women, the equation is trickier. Dominant features may be less helpful at work than youthful, feminine features, which are deemed more attractive, Ms. Keating says.

A bare scalp "is nature's way of telling the rest of the world that you are a survivor," adds Michael Cunningham, a professor at the University of Louisville, who has studied social perceptions of baldness. He adds that the deliberate shaved-head look conveys aggressiveness, competitiveness and shows "willingness to stand against social norms."

Bald quickly became a big part of Mr. Godin's brand. The entrepreneur says his pate helps him stand out at conferences and meetings. Now chief executive of the website Squidoo, he continues to use the image of his bald head as a design element on his book jackets and personal websites. Shaving off his hair, he says, "turned out be a highly leveraged marketing choice."

Michael Landau, 41, took the plunge once he began losing hair in his late teens. Balding at a young age made him shy and uncomfortable, but shaving off the remaining strands nudged him out of his shell. It even helped lead to a job with Mr. Godin years ago, when the two men bonded over their baldness.

Mr. Landau, now CEO of Drybar, a chain of blow-dry salons, says the bald look "makes me more confident and more strong, which probably makes people respect me more." Plus, in the hair business, he says, "people remember the bald guy."

Low levels of vitamin D are associated with a markedly higher risk of myocardial infarction and early death, according to a Danish study.

Vitamin D deficiency traditionally has been linked with poor bone health, according to background information in the study. However, the results from several population studies have indicated that low levels also may be linked to a higher risk of ischemic heart disease. Other studies have shown vitamin D deficiency may increase blood pressure.

With the new study, which involved more than 10,000 Danes, "we have now examined the association between a low level of vitamin D and ischemic heart disease and death in the largest study to date," Dr. Peter Brondum-Jacobsen, the study's lead author and a member of the Clinical Biochemical Department at Copenhagen University Hospital, said in a news release.

The researchers found extremely low levels of vitamin D, compared with optimal levels, are linked to a 40% higher risk of ischemic heart disease, 64% higher risk of MI, 57% higher risk of early death and 81% higher risk of death from heart disease.

"With this type of population study, we are unable to say anything definitive about a possible causal relationship," Borge Nordestgaard, clinical professor at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen and senior physician at Copenhagen University Hospital, said in the news release. "But we can ascertain that there is a strong statistical correlation between a low level of vitamin D and high risk of heart disease and early death.

"The explanation may be that a low level of vitamin D directly leads to heart disease and death. However, it is also possible that vitamin deficiency is a marker for poor health generally."

The scientists are working to determine whether the connection between a low level of vitamin D and the risk of heart disease is a genuine causal relationship.

"The cheapest and easiest way to get enough vitamin D is to let the sun shine on your skin at regular intervals," Nordestgaard said. "There is plenty of evidence that sunshine is good, but it is also important to avoid getting sunburned, which increases the risk of skin cancer. Diet with a good supply of vitamin D is also good, but it has not been proven that vitamin D as a dietary supplement prevents heart disease and death."

When most people think about swine flu, they think of the 2009 H1N1 Pandemic. The H1N1 virus is thought to have come from a reassortment between influenza viruses in North American pig herds and Eurasian pig herds.

The H1N1 virus isn't what people are talking about anymore though. There is a new swine flu virus that is making the news, although fortunately this one has limited person-to-person spread, so there hasn't been any sustained spread in communities where it has been found. Instead, the H3N2 variant (H3N2v) virus is spreading from pigs to people.

So far, there have been at least 305 confirmed cases in the current influenza A (H3N2) variant virus outbreak. However, since our routine flu tests do not detect this virus, you have to wonder if there are many more cases that are undetected.

Fortunately, most cases are mild. The CDC does report however that at least 16 people have been hospitalized and there has been one death, a 61-year-old woman in Ohio. And there is always the risk that the H3N2v virus could change and start spreading from person to person more easily. That makes it important to try and protect your family from the H3N2v virus, including that your kids:

Avoid pigs and swine barns if they are visiting a state fair and they are at high risk for serious flu complications, which includes children younger than age 5 years and kids with chronic health problems, such as asthma, diabetes, or a problem with their immune system, etc.
Don't take food or drink into pig areas; don't eat, drink or put anything in your mouth in pig areas.
Wash your hands often with soap and running water before and after exposure to pigs.
Avoid contact with pigs if you have flu-like symptoms.

While an H3N2v vaccine is not available and this year's seasonal flu vaccine won't protect you from H3N2v, it can be treated with anti-viral flu medications, such as Tamiflu or Relenza. Early treatment with one of these medicines is a good idea for those who are at high risk for severe complications from the flu.

Keep in mind that even if you aren't worried about swine flu, it is still a good idea to make sure your kids wash their hands if they have contact with animals, whether it is at home or at a State Fair or petting zoo. As many parents hopefully know, since there have been multiple warnings about this over the years, farm animals and even many household pets, are notorious for their ability to spread infections, including E. coli and Salmonella.

More than half of insomniacs are risking their health by taking sleeping pills without getting medical advice.

Around 30% of people struggling to sleep have taken remedies for more than a month without talking to a doctor, and 14% for longer than six months, research by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society revealed yesterday.

But the study of 2,000 people also found that in 80% of cases there were underlying health problems, such as heart disease, that needed to be dealt with immediately.

The RPS's Neal Patel said: "If it lasts longer than a month, there will possibly be an underlying medical condition.

"It could be a mental health problem, like depression, or a physical symptom like asthma."

It is believed 25% of adults have trouble sleeping and up to 10% have insomnia.

There has been a rise in the use of pills, with NHS spending on the drugs reaching nearly 50million (euros) last year.

Some 15.3 million prescriptions were handed out in 2010/11, compared to 14.5 million in 2007/08, NHS figures show.

Sheila Fitzpatrick, 76, used to buy pills over the counter and also suffered from depression.

She now uses an online programme instead and yesterday said she would never go back.

She said: "It's been a lifeline for me. I was totally dependent.

"How can you carry on life when you haven't had any sleep? I thought seriously of suicide."