Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

AMICAS board to evaluate updated acquisition proposal from Merge Healthcare

AMICAS, Inc., a leader in image and information management solutions, today announced that it has received from Merge Healthcare Incorporated a proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of AMICAS for $6.05 per share in cash, which has been updated to include an executed definitive commitment letter for $200 million of financing from Morgan Stanley and confirmation that Merge will place a portion of the pre-funded proceeds received from its mezzanine investors into an escrow account directly accessible by AMICAS.

25 Feb 2010

Virginia Life Science Investments completes recapitalization and management restructuring of Cupron

Virginia Life Science Investments, LLC and other investors have completed a recapitalization and management restructuring of Cupron, Inc., a Delaware corporation established in 2001, with principal offices in Modi’in, Israel. The transaction provides significant new capital to support the continued growth and development of Cupron Inc.; as well as the formation and initial capitalization of an independent new entity, Cupron Medical Inc., a Delaware corporation with principal offices in Richmond, VA.

25 Feb 2010

Insurance execs defend rate hikes before Congress

Lawmakers said Anthem Blue Cross, the California insurer that proposed raising premium rates for some individual policyholders by as much as 39 percent, sought to boost profits at the expense of its insured, the Los Angeles Times reports. During a congressional hearing Wednesday, "Democrats said internal documents from [Anthem's parent firm] WellPoint Inc. showed that proposed rate increases of as much as 39% for California customers who buy individual policies would 'return California to a profit of 7%.'"

25 Feb 2010

Genetic Disorder Tracker introduced by Guidepoint Global

Guidepoint Global, LLC, a leading primary research firm, today announced the launch of their Genetic Disorder Tracker, a monthly longitudinal data release that captures commercial trends, on a worldwide basis, associated with the treatment of eight rare genetic disorders: Gaucher's disease, Fabry's disease, PKU, MPS I (Hurler Syndrome), MPS II (Hunter Syndrome), MPS VI (Maroteaux-Lamy Syndrome), Niemann-Pick disease and Pompe disease.

25 Feb 2010

PositiveID, FIS partner to launch Health Link personal health record

PositiveID Corporation announced today that it has entered into a partnership with FIS™, one of the world’s largest providers of banking and payments technology, to launch the Company’s next generation Health Link personal health record (“Health Link”).

25 Feb 2010

Researchers develop evaluation tool to help guide asymptomatic pancreatic cyst treatment

As a result of improved imaging technology, pancreatic cysts are increasingly diagnosed in asymptomatic individuals who undergo scans for other reasons. And while most of these cysts follow a benign course, a small but significant number are either malignant at the time of diagnosis or have the potential to develop into pancreatic cancer during a patient's lifetime.

25 Feb 2010

Obama, GOP clash over summit starting point; Voters note partisan divide

The Obama administration says its health overhaul proposal is a starting point, not a final word, Reuters reports. "It is important to understand that this proposal isn't meant to be the final say on the legislation,' Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said in an email."

25 Feb 2010

Special Issue of Business Horizons addresses issues central to healthcare and life sciences

A recent Special Issue of Business Horizons (www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor), the journal of the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, and published by Elsevier, addresses issues central to healthcare and life sciences. Healthcare reform, for example, has been at the center of U.S. political debate in recent years with renewed attempts to gain bipartisan support from Congress for passage of a national system of health insurance coverage.

25 Feb 2010

Current health reform debate haunted by health bills of the past

Key provisions of the 1993 Republican bill, introduced by Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., with 19 other Republicans and two Democrats, "may seem familiar, as they bear a strong resemblance to those in the current Democratic Senate bill, and now in President Barack Obama's proposal," Kaiser Health News reports. "A mandate that individuals buy insurance, subsidies for the poor to buy insurance and the requirement that insurers offer a standard benefits package and refrain from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions were all in the 1993 GOP bill."

25 Feb 2010

Anthem Blue Cross will go forward with rate hikes, execs tell Calif. lawmakers

Anthem Blue Cross executives told California lawmakers Tuesday that they plan to go ahead with a rate hike of up to 39 percent for individual health insurance policies.

24 Feb 2010

American People's Online Health Summit to be hosted in response to bipartisan health summit

In response to President Barack Obama's bipartisan health summit on February 25, Newt Gingrich's Center for Health Transformation will host the "American People's Online Health Summit," a LIVE blog to engage the American people in health reform negotiations and give them a voice in Washington.

24 Feb 2010

Centrist Dems have mixed responses to new Obama health plan

"The sweeping health-care package unveiled this week by the White House appears to face big hurdles in the House, with abortion and unease among moderates potential stumbling blocks to winning passage of the legislation," The Wall Street Journal reports. President Obama's proposal Monday has "drawn mixed reviews from moderate Democrats," who face electoral pressures and in some cases dispute specific policy ideas. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., for instance, "criticized a new White House provision that would give the federal government powers to hold down insurance premiums, saying that should be up to the states" (Adamy and Hitt, 2/24).

24 Feb 2010

Holy Name Hospital implements Fujitsu PalmSecure authentication technology for patient registration and identification

Fujitsu Frontech North America Inc., a leading supplier of innovative computer products including peripherals and biometric security solutions, today announced that Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, N.J. is the first hospital in New Jersey to implement the Fujitsu PalmSecure™ palm vein authentication technology for patient registration and identification. The Fujitsu PalmSecure biometric solution integrates into Holy Name's new Palm First registration system to bolster security of medical records and enhance the overall patient experience.

24 Feb 2010

Meditation improves cognition in people with memory loss

The Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation today announced data demonstrating that a specific meditation performed daily for eight weeks increased brain activity in areas central to memory and actually improved cognition in patients suffering from memory problems. The results of the study, conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, were published in an early online version of an article scheduled to appear in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (Volume 20:2, April 2010).

24 Feb 2010

Merge Healthcare executes definitive commitment letter for $200M of bridge financing to acquire AMICAS

Merge Healthcare Incorporated today announced that it and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. have executed a definitive commitment letter for $200 million of bridge financing to finance, in part, Merge’s proposed acquisition of AMICAS, Inc..

24 Feb 2010

Osiris Therapeutics' net income for fourth-quarter 2009 increases to $15.7M

Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., the leading stem cell therapeutic company focused on developing and marketing products to treat medical conditions in the inflammatory, cardiovascular and orthopedic areas, announced today its results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2009.

24 Feb 2010

BioMarin Pharmaceutical reports GAAP net income of $4.7M for fourth-quarter 2009

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2009. GAAP net income was $4.7 million ($0.05 per diluted share) for the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to GAAP net income of $24.5 million ($0.21 per diluted share) for the fourth quarter of 2008, which included a $30.0 million payment from Merck Serono related to the approval of Kuvan in the EU.

24 Feb 2010

First Edition: February 24, 2010

Today's headlines focus on the run-up to tomorrow's White House health summit as well as the latest from Capitol Hill regarding the outlook for health reform.

24 Feb 2010

FDA's warning over LABA medications for asthma: AANMA offers guidance

Today Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA) offered guidance to help patients understand recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings about Advair ® (fluticasone and salmeterol), Foradil ® (formoterol), Severent ® (salmeterol) and Symbicort ® (budesonide and formoterol), daily inhaled medications containing a long-acting beta agonist (LABA, a 12-hour bronchodilator).

24 Feb 2010

Diabetic Neuropathy: Drug having disease-modifying potential will earn 40% patient share in the U.S

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that, for the treatment of diabetic neuropathy, a drug that has disease-modifying potential would earn 40 percent patient share in the U.S., according to surveyed U.S. neurologists. Similarly, in Europe, such a drug would earn a comparable patient share of 43 percent, according to surveyed European neurologists.

24 Feb 2010