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Health industry revenue up 5.7 percent, some seniors head south for care

The Dallas Morning News reports that the U.S. Census released a report Thursday that showed health care industry's revenues grew 5.7 percent in 2008 to $1.75 trillion. The number represents 30 percent of economic activity in the U.S., according to a Census official. "The Census Bureau cites Texas as one of the most expensive states for health care.

18 Dec 2009

The backstories of politicians scrambling on health legislation

Politico: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has kept his legislative strategy for the health overhaul under wraps, even from his closest lieutenants. "As Reid works furiously to line up the 60 votes he needs for the most sweeping health care bill in generations, the majority leader is playing an insider's insider's game. He's having private, one-on-one conversations with colleagues, and he's not sharing the contents with others.

18 Dec 2009

COBRA extension moves forward - in defense appropriations bill

Modern Healthcare: "The Senate is expected to vote on a fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill by this weekend that would extend a health insurance subsidy for laid-off workers through February 2010. The House has approved the subsidy extension for the COBRA program, which was tucked into the $636.3 billion Defense appropriations bill."

18 Dec 2009

A selection of today's opinions and editorials

No one has guaranteed ways to slow the growth of health-care spending and ... the pending bills include most of the ways experts believe are likely to succeed (Henry J. Aaron, 12/18).

18 Dec 2009

Republicans oppose military spending to delay health bill

Senate Republicans attempted last night to block a $626 billion defense bill in hopes that stalling the military spending legislation would delay Democrats' work on the health overhaul, The Washington Post reports. By a 63-33 vote early Friday morning, the defense measure cleared a key procedural hurdle that should now allow it to gain passage and, as a result, allow the Senate to return to the health bill.

18 Dec 2009

Labor leaders term Senate health bill 'inadequate'

CBS News: "Labor leaders from two influential unions today called the Senate health care bill 'inadequate,' but they stopped short of pulling their support for the bill. Instead, they are pressing the White House and Congress to modify the bill more to make it more like the House health reform package. After a meeting yesterday with leaders of the Service Employees International Union and a meeting today with its members, SEIU President Andy Stern said the union does not think the Senate is willing or able to make any more progress on its bill.

18 Dec 2009

Senate health bill relies on government regulation to expand coverage

The Los Angeles Times: "When Senate Democratic leaders agreed this week to remove a public insurance plan from their massive healthcare bill, they did more than quash a liberal dream of expanding the government safety net. They effectively pinned their hopes of guaranteeing coverage to all Americans on a far more conventional prescription: government regulation.

18 Dec 2009

White House stung by Liberal health bill backlash

The Wall Street Journal reports on the criticism emanating from the left regarding the Senate health bill. "Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is mounting a campaign of sorts against the initiative in its current form.

18 Dec 2009

Senate leaders in hot pursuit of the elusive 60th vote: Ben Nelson

The Associated Press: "With just days remaining to prove that they can meet a self-imposed Christmas deadline and pass President Barack Obama's signature initiative through the Senate, Democrats seeking a rendezvous with history instead detoured to an intraparty brawl. ... All eyes were on the only known Democratic holdout, moderate Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, whose primary concern is that abortion funding restrictions in the bill were too lax.

18 Dec 2009

Danaher offers GBP 50 million pounds for Genetix Group acquisition

Danaher Corporation announced today its intention to make a recommended cash takeover offer, through an indirect wholly owned subsidiary, to acquire all of the issued and to be issued shares of Genetix Group plc for 85 pence per share implying an aggregate price of approximately GBP 50 million pounds (USD $82 million) net of cash acquired.

From Danaher 18 Dec 2009

Congress lifts federal ban on needle exchange programs

The Minnesota Independent: "An appropriations bill passed by Congress last weekend is being hailed by public health advocates for ending funding for abstinence-until-marriage sex education and eliminating the ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs" (Birkey, 12/17).

18 Dec 2009

ABC News should focus more on integrity, says National Center for Public Policy Research

ABC News should focus less on Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer and more on integrity, says the National Center for Public Policy Research, which just completed an advertising review of ABC's nightly World News.

18 Dec 2009

Jubilant Organosys announces new facility for Niacinamide and 3-Cyanopyridine

Jubilant Organosys Limited, an integrated pharmaceutical industry player and the largest Custom Research and Manufacturing Services Company in India, announced today that it is setting up Niacinamide and 3-Cyanopyridine plant of 10,000 TPA each, expected to be ready by end of 2010.

18 Dec 2009

European CHMP announces positive opinion for Amgen's Prolia marketing authorization

Amgen Inc. today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has announced a positive opinion for the marketing authorization of Prolia((TM)) (denosumab) for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women at increased risk of fractures, and for the treatment of bone loss associated with hormone ablation in men with prostate cancer at increased risk of fractures.

18 Dec 2009

First Edition: December 18, 2009

The highlights from today's headlines focus on continuing movement in the Senate toward a pre-Christmas health overhaul vote -- but many questions about its cost, and how many votes it can attract, persist.

18 Dec 2009

University of Texas at Austin establishes new program to promote research on sports, media and culture

The College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin has established the Texas Program in Sports and Media to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and research on sports, media and culture.

18 Dec 2009

New research into happiness levels of US citizens

New research by the UK's University of Warwick and Hamilton College in the US into the happiness levels of a million individual US citizens have revealed their personal happiness levels closely correlate with earlier research that ranked the quality of life available in the US's 50 states plus the District of Columbia. This research provides a unique external validation of people's self reported levels of happiness and will be of great value to future economic and clinical research in this field.

18 Dec 2009

Rosetta Genomics announces third-quarter 2009 financial results

Rosetta Genomics, Ltd., a leading developer of microRNA-based molecular diagnostics, today reported financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2009 and provided a business update.

18 Dec 2009

Medela announces award recipients from November Virtual Human Milk Collection Campaign

Medela announced today the award recipients from its November Virtual Human Milk (breastmilk) Collection Campaign in honor of the March of Dimes' National Prematurity Awareness Month. More than 4,100 participated in the campaign, voting for their preferred Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

18 Dec 2009

NCD to address disability-related issues at next quarterly meeting

The National Council on Disability (NCD) will conduct its next quarterly meeting at the JW Marriott Houston, 5150 Westheimer, Houston, TX, beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 19, 2010, and ending at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 21, 2010. This meeting is open to the public.

18 Dec 2009