HEALTH

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The March of Dimes is launching a campaign to encourage expectant mothers to take folic acid to prevent birth defects, the group said Friday.

The group announced national Folic Acid Awareness Week, reminding pregnant women to take vitamin B. The vitamin is known to prevent birth defects like spina bifida and anencephaly, collectively known as neural tube defects. NTDs occur in the first few weeks following conception, often before a woman knows she is pregnant.

CHICAGO — Sales of smoking cessation aids are projected to reach $1 billion in 2012 with continued growth driving sales as high as $1.2 billion by 2017, market research firm Mintel reported Thursday. 

PRINCETON, N.J. — Novo Nordisk has appointed Curtis Oltmans as its corporate VP and general counsel for legal and quality affairs, the company said Friday.

In the new role, for which he will also join the company's U.S. executive team, Oltmans will be handle issues like law, quality, intellectual property, grants and philanthropy for the Danish drug maker's North American business.

WASHINGTON — The Council for Responsible Nutrition on Thursday kicked off a year-long celebration in honor of the association’s 40th anniversary. Created in 1973 by three companies and a single staffer, CRN is today recognized by many, both inside and outside the industry, as the leading trade association representing more than 100 dietary supplement manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and companies that supply services for the supplement industry.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — While the "fiscal cliff" bill heads off the most severe tax implications for most Americans, the 25.8 million Americans with diabetes may find this bill a bitter pill to swallow, suggested the National Community Pharmacists Association in a press release issued Wednesday. 

ROCKVILLE, Md. — To help ensure the quality of popular food ingredients increasingly being incorporated into products sold in the United States and worldwide, standards for omega 3-rich krill oil and natural, low-calorie stevia sweeteners are among the latest proposed revisions to the Food Chemicals Codex, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention that publishes the codex announced Wednesday.  

ATLANTA — The incidence of influenza continued on an upward trajectory heading into the Christmas holiday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. Nationwide for the week ending Dec. 22, 4.2% of patient visits reported through the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network were due to influenza-like illness, above the national baseline of 2.2%. 

BETHESDA, Md. — The National Institute on Drug Abuse last week released the 2012 Monitoring the Future survey, finding that 5.6% of high school seniors abused over-the-counter cough and cold medicines containing dextromethorphan, a rate that has held relatively steady over the past five years. Abuse of DXM products was reported to be 3% among eighth graders and 4.7% among tenth graders, bringing the overall average to under 5%.