In brief

Libel case against Wilmshurst is dropped: Three defamation cases brought by the US medical device company NMT Medical against the UK cardiologist Peter Wilmshurst have been dropped. The company, which earlier this year ceased trading (BMJ 2011;342:d2646 doi:10.1136/bmj.d2646), was suing Dr Wilmshurst for criticisms he made in 2005 about the way the firm handled data from a clinical trial. “Libel is about reputations, not about scientific challenges,” said Mark Lewis, the defendant’s solicitor. “Companies shouldn’t sue about scientific debates.”

MRSA in NHS is at “record low”: Cases of meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus in England have reached record low numbers, says the Health Protection Agency. Monthly figures for June show a drop in the number of infections from 134 …