Professor Ian Shanks: ‘It’s nice to have been able to help tens of millions of people around the world in controlling their diabetes’

With the aid of a toy microscope, Professor Ian Shanks came up with an idea that has improved the lives of millions and spawned an $80bn industry. Now he is battling Unilever for his fair share

NHS care: online Q&A

Post your questions about healthcare options here for Roger Taylor, Dr Foster's director of research, to answer

Andrew Lansley’s Department of Big Macs

Philip James: By cosying up to the food industry the health secretary is ignoring all scientific thinking on obesity

McDonald’s and PepsiCo to help write UK health policy

Exclusive: Department of Health putting fast food companies at heart of policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease

Probiotic health claims ruled unproven

European Food Safety Authority says claims regarding immune system and digestive health lack sound scientific basis

Migraine goldmine for Botox maker

Botox manufacturer Allergan has seen cosmetic use of the toxin shrug off the recession but now its potential for therapeutic treatments such as migraine and MS has made the firm 'ecstatic'

Female sexual dysfunction ‘excuse by drug firms to sell pills’

Pharmaceutical firms accused of trying to turn women's loss of desire into a condition treatable with pills

Health insurers force children into the ranks of the uninsured

Seema Jilani: The modest measures imposed by healthcare reform have provoked a fierce defence of profit ahead of people's wellbeing

Happiness doesn’t depend on having a job, study finds

'Having a good day' keeps the unemployed smiling as daily job stresses are replaced by leisure time

Paying egg donors will not solve the problems of IVF

Response: Yes, there are shortages and the system is expensive. But fees would not fix it, says Francoise Shenfield