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Survey: Employers plan to shift more health costs to workers

The Washington Post: "Most big employers plan to shift a larger share of health-care costs to their workers next year, according to a survey to be released Thursday. ... Meanwhile, employees at many companies can expect significantly higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments, according to the annual survey by the National Business Group on Health, a coalition of big employers, and Towers Watson, a consulting firm that advises companies on employee benefits."

12 Mar 2010

Today's OpEds: Rove on reconciliation, an imagined plea from Kennedy, vulnerable Hispanics

The Trouble With 'Reconciliation' The Wall Street Journal House Democrats would be foolish to trust a process that has deeply alienated the American public. Republicans know that and are determined to make House Democrats think hard about the price they will pay for passing this health-care monstrosity (Karl Rove, 3/11).

12 Mar 2010

Sigma-Aldrich announces global licensing agreement with CSIRO for RAFT agents

Sigma-Aldrich (Nasdaq: SIAL) announced today that it has entered into a worldwide licensing agreement with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) to manufacture and sell Reversible Addition-Fragmentation chain Transfer (RAFT) agents – organic molecules that can be added to polymerization reactions to precisely control molecular weights and structures of polymers.

12 Mar 2010

Restrictions on physician work hours may lead to more miscommunication

As shifts change in a hospital, outgoing physicians must "hand off" important information to their replacements in a brief meeting. But a new study of this hand-off process finds that the most important information is not fully conveyed in a majority of cases, even as physicians rate their communication as successful.

11 Mar 2010

New insurance plan to link a patient's cost to effectiveness of treatments

Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby, working in collaboration with USA Today, writes about potentially controversial policies that are a trend toward value-based design.

11 Mar 2010

AIDS 2010 to highlight epidemic in Eastern Europe, Central Asia regions

AIDS 2010, the International AIDS Conference to be held July 18-23 in Vienna, Austria, will "highlight the situation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, regions experiencing fast growing [HIV/AIDS] epidemics largely through unsafe injecting drug use," conference organizers announced Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports.

11 Mar 2010

Collaborative center established to reduce obesity-related deaths in African-American and Latino communities

A $6 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has funded the creation of ORBIT: Obesity Related Behavioral Intervention Trials to focus on reducing obesity and obesity-related deaths in New York City's African-American and Latino communities.

11 Mar 2010

Tel Aviv University investigates cause and effects of SCA syndrome

Sudden Cardiac Arrest syndrome (SCA) is poorly understood, but it's a real danger for the otherwise young and healthy. For no apparent reason, the heart suddenly stops beating, and without treatment death may follow within minutes. It's why some athletes drop dead on the track and why a young man, without any warning, suddenly dies while sitting at his desk.

11 Mar 2010

A new way to control blood pressure

The control of blood pressure is central to people's wellbeing. One in three Australians suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension), a condition which can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and kidney failure.

11 Mar 2010

Researchers identify a novel source of adult stem cells: Foreign body-induced granulation tissue

In a pioneering new study published in the journal Translational Research, Dr. Jilpa Patel and her research group at Hektoen Institute of Medicine and Cook County Hospital in Chicago have isolated and characterized adult stem cells from granulation tissue in rats. A granulation tissue is a new regenerating tissue formed in response to an inert foreign body placed in the subcutaneous tissue.

11 Mar 2010

FDA provides guidance on Restanza clinical program in treatment of CABP

Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery, development and commercialization of novel drugs in the therapeutic areas of infection, oncology and respiratory diseases, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has provided guidance on the clinical program required to assess the approvability of Restanza™ (cethromycin), a novel oral once-a-day antibiotic, in the treatment of outpatient community acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) as well as biodefense indications including anthrax, plague and tularemia.

11 Mar 2010

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals' third-quarter fiscal 2010 total revenues up 45%

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer and serious viral infections, today announced financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2010 ended January 31, 2010. The company also provided an update on its clinical programs and corporate developments.

From Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 11 Mar 2010

Positive results from BioSante Pharmaceuticals' GVAX Leukemia vaccine human clinical study

BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced positive results of a human clinical study that show that its GVAX Leukemia vaccine may be able to reduce or eliminate the last remaining cancer cells in some chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients taking the drug Gleevec (imatinib mesylate).

11 Mar 2010

Advanced Life Sciences Holdings reports decrease in net loss for full-year 2009

Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery, development and commercialization of novel drugs in the therapeutic areas of infection, oncology and respiratory diseases, today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2009.

11 Mar 2010

Florida Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2010 filed in state legislature

National Nurses Organizing Committee-Florida and National Nurses United today announce that the Florida Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2010 has been filed in the state legislature by authors Rep. Oscar Braynon and Sen. Tony Hill and will be known as HB 1283 and S 2316.

11 Mar 2010

Decade of Action for Road Safety seeks to halt increasing trends in road traffic deaths, injuries worldwide

WHO welcomes the proclamation by the UN General Assembly of the first "Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020" which seeks to halt the increasing trends in road traffic deaths and injuries worldwide.

11 Mar 2010

Legalising cannabis: School children debate

Should cannabis be legalised? This thorny political issue will be debated by teams of school children in a national competition designed to challenge the pupil's scientific knowledge. The event is part of the Festival of Social Science organised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and will be staged at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

11 Mar 2010

TTI granted exclusive worldwide rights to commercialize two immunology programs

Trillium Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative immune-based biologics, today announced that it has entered into two definitive license agreements with University Health Network and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, granting Trillium exclusive worldwide rights to commercialize two immunology programs in the areas of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cancer.

11 Mar 2010

USPTO issues patent related to Seattle Genetics' ADC technology

Seattle Genetics, Inc. announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent related to its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology. U.S. Patent No. 7,659,241 covers cleavable linkers and potent auristatin drug payloads used in certain of Seattle Genetics’ ADC programs, most notably brentuximab vedotin (SGN-35), as well as many ADC programs in development by its collaborators.

11 Mar 2010

Evaluating true toxicity of drugs: Changes in collecting and reporting adverse symptom information needed

A Perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine calls for change in the way researchers and pharmaceutical companies collect and report adverse symptom information in clinical trials submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and how the FDA represents this information on drug labels.

11 Mar 2010