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Columbia Laboratories renews license and supply agreement with Merck Serono

Columbia Laboratories, Inc. has renewed its license and supply agreement with Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, for CRINONE (progesterone gel) for an additional five-year term. Under the existing agreement and the renewal, Merck Serono has marketing rights worldwide, except the United States.

18 May 2010

Insurance regulators wrestle with definition of 'unreasonable' rate increases

Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby writes about the challenge of defining terms like "unreasonable": "When WellPoint proposed up to a 39 percent premium increase for some of its California customers, it touched off a storm of criticism that helped boost passage of the new health care law" (Appleby, 5/17).

18 May 2010

First Edition: May 17, 2010

Today's headlines highlight stories about efforts to advance the implementation of federal health reforms as well as the sweeping measure's political impact in primary races across the country.

17 May 2010

Anti-abortion groups use health law in efforts to restrict insurance coverage

Abortion opponents fought passage of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul to the bitter end, and now that it's the law, they're using it to limit coverage by private insurers. An obscure part of the law allows states to restrict abortion coverage by private plans operating in new insurance markets.

17 May 2010

Small anti-abortion advocacy group flexes muscle in midterm elections

The Washington Post reports on the increasingly important role of a small antiabortion advocacy group, the Susan B. Anthony List, which is targeting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in his bid for re-election.

15 May 2010

GOP launches new challenge to health law with coordinated messaging

Republicans are starting a new bid to undermine Democratic attempts at touting a new health law. The GOP effort includes attacks on both President Barack Obama's pick to run Medicare and on claims that implementation is going smoothly.

15 May 2010

U.N. Secretary-General discusses G8, G20 commitments during visit to Ottawa

On Wednesday, ahead of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed several topics in a "speech warning that leaders of the G8 and G20 countries should not use global economic and financial difficulties as 'an excuse' to neglect previous pledges of billions of dollars for the world's poor - for doubling aid to Africa, food security, malaria and AIDS programs and maternal and child health care," Canwest News Service/Calgary Herald writes (O'Neill, 5/12).

14 May 2010

World Bank announces five-year plan to reduce maternal deaths, fertility rates in 58 low-income countries

During the release of its five-year plan to help drive down high maternal death and fertility rates in low-income countries, the World Bank on Tuesday said "that family planning and other reproductive health services have fallen off the radar of many governments, donors and aid agencies," Reuters reports.

13 May 2010

Opinions: Abortion in Canada's G8 initiative; Security of Afghan women; U.S. global development strategy; Mother's Day; U.S. food security initiative; Polio eradication

National Post columnist Jonathan Kay examines the ongoing debate over whether Canada's G8 child and maternal health initiative should include abortions, which according to a 2006 Oxford University Press-World Bank report, are "one small chunk of a bigger puzzle. A much larger problem, in terms of the number of female lives affected, is the decidedly less headline-grabbing subject of hemorrhages - which include antepartun hemorrhages … and primary postpartum hemorrhages.

12 May 2010

Health overhaul provisions raise moral, religious debates

The new health law has renewed concerns about some moral and religious issues, such as the government's role in providing sex education and health care workers' ability to opt out of providing end-of-life care and abortions.

12 May 2010

Lancet examines Canada's G8 strategy for maternal, child health initiatives

A Lancet World Report examines the details of the Canadian government's strategy for the G8 maternal and child health initiative and reactions from global health leaders and politicians to the plan, including the announcement during a meeting of G8 leaders Halifax, Nova Scotia, that the initiative would not support abortion.

10 May 2010

Lawsuit over hepatitis C infections contracted from Doctor

Nearly 30 women got infected with Hepatitis C virus due to a breach in infection prevention protocols by an anaesthetist at a late-term abortion clinic. The incidents occurred at the Croydon Day Surgery in Melbourne's eastern suburbs during an 18-month period when James Latham Peters was working as an anaesthetist. The issue had come to light in the last few weeks. Now a multi million dollar lawsuit against the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria on behalf of the allegedly infected women is being planned.

9 May 2010

Florida Gov. Crist weighs options on abortion bill

The Palm Beach Post: "Gov. Charlie Crist appears likely to veto a bill requiring women to see ultrasounds before they can get abortions, state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, said today" (Bennett, 5/5).

7 May 2010

Columbia Laboratories reports 34% increase in net revenues from U.S. sales of progesterone products

Columbia Laboratories, Inc. today announced financial results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2010.

6 May 2010

Opinions: G8's track record; Maternal, child health; Chan on N. Korea; USAID, DDT in Haiti

In a Vancouver Sun opinion piece, columnist Barbara Yaffe writes about the "disappointing track record of delivery on past G8 aid promises" in light of recent concern over Canada's announcement that it will not fund abortion in its G8 initiative.

6 May 2010

Most women pay for abortions out of pocket; Okla. and Fla. abortion restrictions in the news

"Most women getting abortions pay for them out of their own pockets, with private insurers picking up the cost for just 12%, according to a new survey" from the Guttmacher Institute. The Journal adds that abortion coverage was "a flash point" in the health reform debate, "with abortion opponents seeking to block plans that include abortions from the new federally mandated insurance exchanges set to launch in 2014."

5 May 2010

First Edition: May 4, 2010

Today's headlines include stories about parts of the new health reform law dealing with long-term care, high risk insurance pools and early retiree health insurance.

4 May 2010

Opinions: Malaria bed net concerns; Catholic Church's humanitarian work; Abortion, global health; Foreign aid reform; Canada's G8 initiative

"To date, millions of dollars from international agencies, NGOs and USAID have been spent to get treated nets into the hands of impoverished, sub-Saharan Africans [to prevent malaria]. ... But, as even the staunchest advocate will admit, the treated nets were not designed with the cultural preferences of the rural African villager in mind," Sonia Shah, author of upcoming book about malaria, writes in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece.

4 May 2010

GOP, Democrats increasingly use health reform lessons to shape other policies

The Associated Press: Politics within the Republican Party are having a profound affect on sweeping policy issues "such as immigration, health care and deficit spending." The reason behind this development is that many incumbent Republicans are moving to the right to protect themselves against primary election challenges.

3 May 2010

First Edition: May 3, 2010

Today's headlines include analysis of how this year's health reform debate is shaping other national policy initiatives and the upcoming mid-term elections.

3 May 2010