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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The longer a person maintains a body mass index qualifying him or her as "obese," the greater risk he or she incurs in developing diabetes, a new study released Tuesday found.

PHILADELPHIA — Overweight people with lower back pain is more intense than people of normal weight with back pain, according to a recent study published in the Sept. 15 issue of Spine.

The study sets up another comorbidity associated with being overweight.

LONG BRANCH, N.J. — Francesco International on Tuesday released a Rx-to-OTC projection report covering potential switches through 2016. The potential switches include drugs prescribed for chronic use or for asymptomatic conditions — two switch hurdles that to date have not cleared the Food and Drug Administration approval process.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway on Tuesday announced its offering of flu shots in its grocery stores — positioning its flu season inoculation as more convenient to drug stores.

"Safeway makes getting a flu shot more convenient than most other retailers offering immunizations, because consumers visit grocery stores on a regular basis," the supermarket chain stated. "In an average month, 49% of those surveyed said they visit grocery stores most often, compared [with] 8% who said they visit drug stores most often."

NEW YORK — Pfizer has completed its initial cash tender offer for all the shares of drug maker Icagen that it doesn't already own, Pfizer said Tuesday.

Pfizer, which already owns an 11% stake in Icagen, announced Thursday that it would acquire a majority stake in the company. As of Friday, when the initial tender offer period expired, about 4.6 million shares of Icagen had been put up for sale; combined with Pfizer's existing stake, this represents about 64% of the North Carolina-based maker of drugs for pain, epilepsy and inflammation.

NEW YORK — After entering a definitive agreement to acquire biopharmaceutical company Icagen, Pfizer has extended its tender offer for all outstanding shares of common stock.

Pfizer, which already has an 11% stake in Icagen, is offering the company a cash transaction of $6 per share. The tender offer, which was extended to Icagen through Pfizer's wholly owned subsidiary Eclipse Acquisition, expires at midnight on Sept. 1.

All other terms and conditions of the tender offer remain unchanged.

MINNEAPOLIS — Novo Nordisk has expressed its support of new diabetes education programs created by four Minneapolis-based community organizations.

HAMILTON, Ontario — Proton-pump inhibitors may aggravate, not soothe, stomach discomfort created through chronic use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for such conditions as arthritis, according to research released Thursday.

In a study published in the medical journal Gastroenterology, principal investigator John Wallace reported the extent of the hard-to-detect damage caused to the small intestine only recently has been discovered through use of small video cameras swallowed like pills.