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Public option re-emerges in Senate discussions; continues to play role in House

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's efforts to merge the two Senate health care reform bills is being complicated by question of whether to include a public plan and how it might fit with vote counting, the president's agenda and the more liberal version sure to come out of the House.

19 Oct 2009

Pfizer announces it has combined operations with Wyeth following the closing of the acquisition

Pfizer Inc today announced that it has combined operations with Wyeth following the closing of the acquisition yesterday. Pfizer is now a more diversified health care company, with product offerings in human, animal, and consumer health, including vaccines, biologics, small molecules and nutrition across the developed and emerging markets.

19 Oct 2009

Palomar Medical Technologies to continue commercialization of its wrinkle treatment laser device

Palomar Medical Technologies Inc., a leading researcher and developer of light-based systems for cosmetic treatments, today announced the termination of its agreement with Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies Inc ("JJCC"), a Johnson & Johnson company, to develop, clinically test and commercialize home-use, light-based devices for (i) reducing or reshaping body fat including cellulite; (ii) reducing appearance of skin aging; and (iii) reducing or preventing acne.

19 Oct 2009

Hearings focus on gender discrimination in health coverage and the underinsured

During a hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, several women shared stories of gender discrimination in health care coverage.

19 Oct 2009

Palin criticizes Baucus health bill in essay on her Facebook page

Politico reports that "Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin penned a tough but wonky critique Saturday night of the health care bill approved this week by the Senate Finance Committee. In a more than 1,000-word essay posted on her Facebook page shortly before midnight, Palin knocked the bill sponsored by Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) for not setting up proper cost offsets, but offered none of the more incinedary, 'death-panel' type claims that have marked her previous comments."

19 Oct 2009

New NIH grants to develop Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System

The National Institutes of Health announced today that it is awarding 15 new grants to further develop and test the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS).

19 Oct 2009

Research study on cowpox virus

In the annals of medicine, Edward Jenner's 1796 vaccination of a young boy against smallpox, using fluid from cowpox blisters, remains a landmark case. In a new study, Kathryn Sykes, a researcher at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute and her colleagues have taken a fresh look at cowpox.

19 Oct 2009

Obama administration appears open to public plan 'trigger'

"The Obama administration signaled a willingness to compromise on a proposed government-run health- insurance company by praising Senator Olympia Snowe's plan to start the entity only if private insurers don't meet targets," Bloomberg reports.

19 Oct 2009

GOP, Some Dems object to plan for adjusting physicians' medicare pay

Senate Democrats next week will take up a $240 billion, stand-alone bill that would stop scheduled cuts in Medicare's payments to physicians, The Hill reports. Although the action would be separate from sweeping health reform legislation, "[f]ixing the physician payments could boost Democrats' health reform efforts by providing physicians with a win on their foremost priority.

19 Oct 2009

Ethics in biomedical research: One-year grant from NIH to develop interactive educational software

Arkitek Studios and the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research (NWABR) have been awarded a $100,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health. This one-year grant, entitled ETHOS (Ethics Training Health Oriented Software), provides funding for development of interactive educational software that will underscore the critical role ethics plays in biomedical research.

19 Oct 2009

House members consider where others stand in health reform debate

As the House Democratic leadership continues to work toward moving a health overhaul measure to the floor, members continue to stake out positions - sometimes because of their personal histories or where they are from. In a few cases, the positions they have taken lead to increased attention.

19 Oct 2009

UCSC professors receive $1.8M grant under NHGRI's genome sequencing technology development programme

Oxford Nanopore Technologies congratulates our collaborators Professor Mark Akeson and Professor David Deamer of the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) on receiving a grant of $1.1 million, and Professor Jene Golovchenko of the University of Harvard on receiving $745,000 following on from a previous grant of $6.5 million.

From Oxford Nanopore Technologies 19 Oct 2009

CytoSorb human clinical trials nearing completion

TapeBeat.com, the news and research portal for the serious bio-tech investor in conjunction with the Farseers Group is proud to profile one of the most exciting up and coming biotech companies, MedaSorb Technologies (MSBT.OB), which is perfectly poised to realize exponential growth.

19 Oct 2009

Studies find frail seniors often get poor, futile care

Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine find that some medical care, especially at the end of life, may be a poor choice for feeble seniors. They also show the importance of palliative care over aggressive treatment for certain patients.

19 Oct 2009

New chromosomal abnormality in acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Researchers identified a new chromosomal abnormality in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that appears to work in concert with another mutation to give rise to cancer. This latest anomaly is particularly common in children with Down syndrome.

19 Oct 2009

Inaccurate body temperature readings can harm the entire health care system

As we head into a flu season where the 2009 H1N1 swine flu is expected to cause increased sickness, hospitalization and deaths across the U.S., something as simple as inaccurate body temperature measurements may lead to social and economic turmoil – and may cause many more deaths.

19 Oct 2009

DKC establishes link between genetic mutation affecting telomerase function and human disease

The human genetic disease dyskeratosis congenita (DKC) is an autosomal dominant disease that leads to abnormalities in tissues with a rapid cell turnover - the skin, nails, bone marrow, lungs and gut. Patients with DKC experience life-threatening symptoms. Bone marrow failure increases their risk of fatal infections and cancer. Many die before the age of 30 and management of the disease is limited to trying to treat its symptoms.

19 Oct 2009

Lawmakers seek to quickly fix Medicare payments for physicians

Both the House and the Senate are considering moving quickly to bar cuts in Medicare payments to physicians.

19 Oct 2009

Latest ad audit asks if the insurers' claims add up

In his latest ad audit, Kaiser Health News staff writer Jordan Rau explores whether insurers' claims, made in a recent advertisement, add up.

19 Oct 2009

Antibiotic resistance to be undesirable consequence of antibiotic abuse is inaccurate, reveals report

The perception that antibiotic resistance is primarily the undesirable consequence of antibiotic abuse or misuse is a view that is simplistic and inaccurate, according to a recent report by the American Academy of Microbiology. The reasons behind the spread of resistance are much more complex, including appropriate antibiotic use, lack of proper sanitation and hygiene, and even the environment.

19 Oct 2009