Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis International AG has chosen Singapore as the site for its biggest manufacturing facility, Channelnewsasia.com said on Monday.

The proposed $700-million biotechnology facility will produce new drugs for asthma, cancer and spinal chord injuries starting in 2012, the company disclosed during the opening of its $180-million tabletting facility in Tuas, an industrial zone in western Singapore. The Business Times said the new factory will also make so-called monoclonal antibodies used in treatments for rheumatoid arthritis

The United Nations said on Wednesday that Gaza is facing an increasing shortage of medical supplies as a direct result of Israel's restrictions on goods being allowed to be imported. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that drastic measures must be taken in order to relieve the situation facing Palestinians in Gaza.

"The economic noose continues to tighten around the necks of the people of Gaza, who are being manifestly punished as part of a political strategy," Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said in a UN press statement

Some surgery rooms and healthcare centers in the Gaza Strip are being closed because of a shortage of anesthetics, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns.

The shortage of anesthetics is caused by Israeli import restrictions, OCHA said in a statement, adding it is concerned about the inability of people with emergency health conditions to leave the Gaza Strip to obtain medical care elsewhere

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and Trust for America's Health (TFAH) released a report on Wednesday finding that children and teens between the ages of 0-19 account for nearly 46 percent of all H5N1 "bird" flu deaths. The report also identifies gaps in U.S. preparedness for treating and caring for children during a possible pandemic flu outbreak.

Four key areas of concern raised in the report include: child-appropriate doses of vaccine and medications; management and treatment of children who become ill; including children in strategies to slow the spread of influenza in communities; and caring for and supervising the health of children if schools and childcare facilities are closed for extended periods of time

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report released on Thursday reveals that arthritis limits millions of working Americans' productivity, activity or ability to work. John H. Klippel, M.D., president and CEO of the Arthritis Foundation says, "Arthritis is the nation's most common cause of disability and limits activity for 19 million adults with the disease."

A previous CDC study shows in 2003 state-specific earning losses due to arthritis ranged from $78 million to $4.3 billion. That same year, the total cost of arthritis to the United States economy was $128 billion