WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health experts say Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Victoza should be approved for a new use in treating obesity.
The panel of Food and Drug Administration advisers voted 14-1 that the injectable drug’s benefits outweigh its risks for patients who are obese or dangerously overweight.
The FDA first approved Victoza in 2010 as a daily injection to help control type 2 diabetes. The drug is part of a new class of medicines called GLP-1 agonists, which spur the pancreas to create extra insulin after meals. People with diabetes have trouble breaking down food into energy due to problems producing or using insulin.
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk now wants the FDA to approve the drug as an obesity treatment based on company studies showing significant weight loss in most patients.
The Missouri Western soccer team is off to a program-best 3-0 start after an overtime goal Friday night from Bridget Blessie lifted the Griffs past Bemidji State 1-0. Just three games into the season, the 2014 squad has surpassed the 2013 win total and equaled the goal output from last year’s team.
The 201 people in attendance may have wondered if it would ever happen, but it did. Five minutes into the first overtime, Blessie took a swing at the ball from 30 yards out. It sailed over the head of her waiting teammates, took a bounce over Bemidji goalie Sonja Barr’s head and into the net.
It may have been the Griffons first goal but was far from their first offensive threat. For the third straight game, MWSU controlled the action, outshooting Bemidji 23-7. The Griffons managed 12 shots on goal past a stingy Bemidji defense. Sarah Lyle is now 3-0 on the season and has yet to allow a goal. The sophomore saw little action with just one Bemidji shot making it to the Griffon goalie.
Teddi Serna paced the Griffons with five shots, followed by four each from K.C. Ramsell and Bailey Dervin.
Missouri Western looks to remain perfect on the season Sunday when they host Augustana at noon. Admission to all home matches is free.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — One season after winning the World Series, the Boston Red Sox are playing spoiler — and doing all they can to extend a playoff drought in Kansas City that’s lasted nearly three decades.
Allen Webster pitched six solid innings and Jemile Weeks stroked a pair of doubles and scored two runs as the Red Sox defeated the sputtering Royals 4-2 on Friday night.
Kansas City lost for the fourth time in five games and fell out of first place in the AL Central for the first time since Aug. 10. The Royals, who are 0-5 against the last-place Red Sox, dropped a half-game behind Detroit, which beat Cleveland 7-2.
“Any time you can spoil it for another team is big,” Weeks said.
Webster (4-3), who had allowed 15 runs on 16 hits and seven walks in 13 2/3 innings over his previous three starts, limited the Royals to four hits — including Eric Hosmer’s two-run homer in the fourth.
“I just tried to forget about it and attack hitters,” Webster said. “Attack them and let the defense work behind me.”
Weeks, who had a two-run double in the ninth inning Thursday, doubled in the third and fifth. Mookie Betts singled home Weeks in a three-run third. He scored again on Daniel Nava’s two-out single in the fifth.
“They’re in the hunt,” Betts said. “Since we’re not in it, we might as well put everybody else out of it that we can, but mostly we’re just having fun playing the game.”
The Royals, who have not reached the postseason since winning the 1985 World Series, are having anything but fun.
“I think everyone is trying a little bit too hard,” Alex Gordon said. “It’s just not coming together right now. There’s a lot going on just because we’re in the middle of a pennant race and we’re not swinging well. We’ve got to move on.
“I think it’s just frustration. I don’t think pressing as (much as) it is frustrating. The pitching is doing the job. We just need to step up and forget about what we did tonight.”
The Royals aided the Red Sox in the third, with Betts scoring on third baseman Mike Moustakas’ throwing error and Nava scoring on Yordano Ventura’s wild pitch.
“We definitely could have played better,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.
Ventura (12-10), who had won his previous three starts, gave up four runs — three earned — and seven hits in seven innings. He also hit two batters with pitches.
Red Sox relievers Tommy Layne, Burke Badenhop, Koji Uehara and Edward Mujica held the Royals hitless for the final three innings. Mujica earned his sixth save.
GOT YOUR NUMBER
Red Sox pitchers are 5-0 with a 1.80 ERA this season against the Royals, holding them to a .206 batting average and nine extra-base hits.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Red Sox: DH David Ortiz (bruised right foot) and 1B Mike Napoli (sore toe and dislocated finger) did not play. … INF Brock Holt is out with concussion-like symptoms after being examined by a specialist in Pittsburgh.
Royals: LHP Danny Duffy, who missed his turn Thursday with a tender shoulder, made about 30 throws at 75 feet on flat ground. He said his goal is to make his next start, which would be Tuesday against the White Sox. … DH Josh Willingham injured his groin in his final at-bat Thursday and will be out for at least a couple of games.
UP NEXT
Red Sox: Rubby De La Rosa, who is 0-2 with a 6.20 ERA in his past five starts, will pitch the third game of the series. De La Rosa has allowed 37 hits and walked 11 in 24 2/3 innings over those five starts.
Royals: Jeremy Guthrie will make his 23rd appearance and 21st start against Boston on Saturday. He is 3-9 with a 5.06 ERA against the Red Sox and has not defeated them since 2011.
The Missouri Western volleyball team went 1-1 Friday, beating Bemidji State in game one (3-0) and losing to Augustana College in a tough fought five-game set at the NSIC Challenge in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Game 1
The Griffons picked up right where they left off from the past weekend, sweeping Bemidji State three sets to none. It made the third consecutive sweep for the Griffons dating back to last Saturday. MWSU shut down the Beavers offensively, not allowing more than 16 points in any game through the three set match.
Sophomore Kelsey Olion led the way offensively with 12 kills and posted a .611 attack percentage. The Griffons also received solid production out of Amanda Boender and Jessie Thorup with each adding 11 kills apiece.
Other leaders for the Griffons included Jordan Chohon giving out 41 assist in the match and also Sarah Faubel with 15 digs.
Game 2
The second match of the day for the Griffons lasted until the fifth set with Augustana winning 3-2. MWSU took the first and third set in the match but Augustana managed to comeback in the fourth and fifth set to get the victory.
The Griffons again had a balanced attack with four individuals posting double-figure kills. Junior Jessica Thorup had 22 kills throughout the match. Erica Rottinghaus (17), Amanda Boender (13) and Kelsey Olion (11) scored double-figure kills.
Again the Griffons were set up by Jordan Chohon assisting on 61 points. The team leader in digs was Sarah Faubel with 18 in the match.
Action continues for the Griffon volleyball team against Minnesota State University Moorhead at 2 p.m. and University of Sioux Falls 7 p.m., on Saturday
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Adam Wainwright snapped out of a midseason funk with a complete game in his previous start for St. Louis, and Colorado saw a pitcher who still had shutdown stuff.
“When I’m cruising, I’m ahead in the count, throwing all my pitches for strikes, trusting my defense and pounding the bottom of the zone,” Wainwright said after earning his 18th win in the Cardinals’ 5-1 victory on Friday night. “So, doing those things, usually things work out right.”
Matt Holliday hit a long three-run homer to left in the first inning for the Cardinals, who stopped a three-game losing streak. The distance of Holliday’s 17th homer was estimated at 467 feet.
“It’s fun to hit one like that,” Holliday said. “I hit that about as good as I can hit a ball.”
Wainwright (18-9) allowed one run and six hits in eight innings with eight strikeouts and no walks. He retired his final 16 batters while improving to 7-1 against Colorado and matching Clayton Kershaw and Johnny Cueto for the major league lead in wins.
Wainwright noted that Colorado’s lineup is not as formidable without Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez.
“They’re missing two of the best hitters in baseball and they’re still a very good lineup,” Wainwright said. “Guys all through the order can hit home runs.”
Holliday ended a nine-game RBI drought and homered for the first time this month, sending a drive off Jorge De La Rosa (13-11) into Big Mac Land beyond left field. It was the second-longest homer at 9-year-old Busch Stadium behind Holliday’s 469-foot drive against the Chicago Cubs’ Ryan Dempster on July 20, 2012.
The NL Central-leading Cardinals stayed 2 1/2 games ahead of second-place Pittsburgh.
De La Rosa allowed four runs — three earned — and four hits in six innings. Colorado has scored just three runs during a four-game losing streak. They had been shut out the previous two games in New York against the Mets.
“We had a lot of good at-bats,” said eighth-place hitter D.J. LeMahieu, who was 0 for 4 with nothing out of the infield. “We lined out three or four times. We definitely had better at-bats than the New York series, that’s for sure.”
De La Rosa got off to a rough start. He walked Matt Carpenter and gave up Randal Grichuk’s infield hit before Holliday connected.
“I didn’t have my best stuff,” De La Rosa said. “I tried to make them put the ball in the play and my only mistake was to Holliday. It was supposed to be away and he hit it really good.”
Colorado, which entered first in the NL with a .274 average and 665 runs, went 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Nolan Arenado’s RBI double off the base of the left-field wall in the third ended a 21-inning scoreless drought on what Wainwright described as perhaps the “best swing I’ve ever seen on my curveball on a ball that was about 56 feet.”
Yadier Molina’s RBI double in the eighth was his first extra-base hit since July 9. Grichuk had a hit and a walk and is batting .414 (12 for 29) since being recalled Aug. 29.
St. Louis has won 20 of its last 28 against the Rockies.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rockies: 1B Justin Morneau was taken out before the bottom of the sixth with left intercostal soreness and is day to day.
Cardinals: RHP Michael Wacha, struggling to regain form after nearly two months on the DL with a shoulder injury, will be pushed back in the rotation. Rookie LHP Marco Gonzales will start instead on Sunday.
UP NEXT
Rockies: Franklin Morales (6-7, 5.21 ERA) pitched six scoreless innings against the Padres his last start.
Cardinals: Shelby Miller (9-9, 3.83 ERA) has thrown 14 consecutive scoreless innings his last two starts and is 1-0 with a 2.31 ERA in two career outings against Colorado.
WHO NEEDS LUCK?
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny shaved off his beard after St. Louis lost three of four at Cincinnati. He joked it was “by demand.”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Fifty-two U.S. House members have signed a letter voicing concerns about a proposal to change the map that governs how donated livers are distributed around the country.
The letter, dated Friday, was written by Kansas Congressman Kevin Yoder, a Republican. It comes in advance of a meeting Tuesday in Chicago to discuss a proposal to redraw the nation’s transplant regions.
The issue is that some areas have fewer donated organs, and higher demand for them, than others. The United Network for Organ Sharing, which runs the nation’s transplant network, has proposed basing the map on the distribution and demand for donated organs.
The lawmakers who signed the letter are largely from the South and the Midwest. Those regions have higher organ donation rates and fear they would be negatively affected.
KANSAS CITY- A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 1 p.m. on Friday in Wyandotte County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Chevy Trailblazer driven by Fernanda B. Segura-Manon, Kansas City, was southbound on Interstate 635 just south of Metropolitan when a vehicle cut in front of the Trailblazer. The Trailblazer made an evasive maneuver, left the roadway and rolled down the hill.
Segura-Manon was transported to KU Medical Center. The KHP reported he was properly restrained at the time of the accident.
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Prominent Missouri political donor Rex Sinquefield has contributed $2.5 million to an organization that has pushed for lower income taxes.
Grow Missouri says it plans to use the money to finance its operations through the rest of the year. Treasurer Aaron Willard says that could include advertising, data collection and other support for candidates and ballot issues.
The group says it also plans to support a statewide listening tour by House Majority Leader John Diehl, who has dubbed his initiative “100 Great Ideas for Missouri.”
Grow Missouri supported Republican tax-cutting efforts that culminated earlier this year with the enactment of a law prescribing a gradual income tax cut.
Willard says the group wants to support additional “pro-growth” and smaller-government initiatives.
Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee.-Photo by Phil Cauthon
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
TOPEKA — A newsletter for Johnson County seniors has become a source of consternation to some legislators who say an upcoming article critical of the health care compact passed this year will unfairly portray the legislation as a threat to Medicare.
Several people present Wednesday at a legislative breakfast hosted by the Johnson County Commission on Aging said the event was mostly cordial until Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee, questioned the commission’s intention to publish in a county newsletter an article critical of the compact.
“There was a lot of mutual respect in the room, but a pretty strong position was taken on this one particular issue, and for that part of the meeting things did get pretty tense,” said Dan Goodman, executive director of the Johnson County Area Agency on Aging.
The commission on aging is a board of volunteers appointed by Johnson County commissioners to advise the Johnson County Area Agency on Aging.
Pilcher-Cook said via email Thursday that she had not read the article in question but had concerns about the content as communicated to her.
“Someone told me about it and it was clear at the meeting there was some confusion about what the compact would allow, so I asked if they would hold it until they received more information,” said Pilcher-Cook, who as chairwoman of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee pushed for passage of the bill authorizing the state’s membership in the controversial compact.
‘A lot of research’
Commission leaders say they are open to another meeting with legislators but aren’t confused about the compact and are comfortable with the draft of the article set to run in October, one month before general elections for all House seats and statewide offices. The article outlines the commission’s opposition to the compact based on concerns about Medicare.
“As far as the information in the article being incorrect, I would certainly disagree with that,” said Chuck Nigro, chairman of the commission’s legislative committee. “We assure you, there’s been a lot of research done.”
The compact would allow states to opt out of all federal laws regarding health care and take money currently used for federal health programs as block grants for state-run programs. Gov. Sam Brownback and governors of seven other states signed the compact bill, but it must be approved by Congress and, according to some constitutional scholars, by the president before it becomes effective.
The compact bill was meant as a repudiation of the Affordable Care Act, colloquially called Obamacare.
But Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger and the AARP spoke against the bill, saying it posed a threat to Medicare, the federally run health care program for American seniors.
Medicare concerns
At Wednesday’s event, Pilcher-Cook questioned the commission about its intent to submit the article to The Best Times, a monthly publication that is mailed to all Johnson County residents 60 and older.
Rep. Barbara Bollier, R-Mission, several commission members and Goodman all said that Pilcher-Cook assured commission members they had nothing to worry about regarding Medicare.
“She stated adamantly that there is absolutely no change to Medicare from this bill,” said Bollier, who opposed the compact.
Rep. Keith Esau, R-Olathe, another compact supporter who was at the breakfast, said he also had not read the proposed article but shared Pilcher-Cook’s concerns about it.
“It has some misinformation about the compact,” Esau said. “They’re saying that Medicare could be taken away from people, and that’s not true. The health care compact allows Kansas to manage it for ourselves instead of having the federal government manage it, but it doesn’t allow us to rob it or take it away.”
Esau said the compact, based on model legislation adopted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, is written so states can only use the federal block grant money for health care.
Bollier, a doctor, said she was unconvinced.
“If you put that money into the state general fund, it is possible it can be swept and used for other things,” Bollier said. “We all know any money can.”
In recent years money from the Kansas Department of Transportation’s highway construction fund has been re-appropriated for a number of purposes, and dollars from a legal settlement with tobacco companies earmarked for early childhood education programs have been diverted to pay for initiatives for older children.
The state is currently deficit spending and is projected to run out of reserves next year.
Rep. Stephanie Clayton, R-Overland Park, said she might have supported the compact if an amendment carving out Medicare had been approved. But after the amendment narrowly failed, Clayton decided to vote against the compact.
“It is my understanding that it would turn Medicare over to state control, and right now we’re in a precarious budget situation,” said Clayton, who was at Wednesday’s legislative breakfast.
Bollier said she could not support the bill because when she asked its carrier, Rep. Brett Hildabrand, R-Shawnee, what his plan was for state administration of Medicare, he had no answer.
Hildabrand did not respond to a message left Thursday, but when the bill passed he told the Wichita Eagle that Medicare would continue unchanged.
Pilcher-Cook said the purpose of the compact was to restore freedom to states “being coerced by the federal health care law, aka Obamacare.” Changes to Medicare are not contemplated, she said.
“It is clear the Kansas Legislature would have no interest in changing anything about Medicare unless it was being destroyed by the federal government,” Pilcher-Cook said.
Esau said that if the compact gains federal approval, the Legislature will probably continue to let the federal government administer Medicare.
“The likelihood is we would continue to let Medicare run the way it is currently unless there is a threat to Medicare, and then we might want to manage it so we get better health care out of it,” Esau said.
In signing the bill, Brownback said he “would strongly oppose any effort at the state level to reduce Medicare benefits or coverage for Kansas seniors” if the state takes over the program.
An informed vote
Nigro, Johnson County Commission on Aging chairwoman Patti Rule and vice chairman Eugene Lipscomb said they and other commission members examined the compact bill carefully before deciding to publicly raise concerns about it.
“There were questions about the state’s ability to actually operate Medicare and what the plan was, and we didn’t believe it was in the best interests of Kansas seniors,” Nigro said Thursday during a conference call that included Rule and Lipscomb.
The commission leaders said it was logical to write about the group’s stance on the issue and submit the article to The Best Times, which is designed to inform seniors.
Esau disagreed, saying a government publication is “probably not the place to have an opinion like that.”
“If they’re going to run it they should have it balanced, both sides,” Esau said. “It shouldn’t just be propaganda against the health care compact. It should have both sides displayed.”
The Johnson County Commission assumed publication duties of The Best Times last year. But the county’s public information officer, Gerald Hay, said editorial control still rests with the Johnson County Area on Aging and unless he hears differently from Goodman, he will run the story as is.
Goodman said he has no plans to change or pull it.
He said the commission that advises his agency is made up of competent professionals or retired professionals. He said Nigro is a former nursing facility administrator, Rule is a semi-retired public health nurse and Lipscomb is a housing administrator and attorney.
“We 100 percent support the advisory board,” Goodman said. “I followed their research on the compact bill, and I know they’ve done their due diligence. Their article is informative, but I don’t think it’s inflammatory in any way. It’s basically asking logical questions that anyone would ask if their benefits or income were being looked at.”
Nigro, Rule and Lipscomb said the commission had emailed Pilcher-Cook with an offer to set another meeting about the compact, but the article has been submitted and the commission fully intends for it to run.
“If it doesn’t get published, I’m sure you’ll hear from us,” Nigro said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health experts say Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Victoza should be approved for a new use in treating obesity.
