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Insurer funds business PAC supporting Calif. GOP insurance commissioner candidate, other health politics

A California Chamber of Commerce political action committee bankrolled in part by insurance companies is funding TV ads supporting Republican Mike Villines in his quest to become state insurance commissioner, the Los Angeles Times reports.

8 Oct 2010

Genzyme board of directors vote to reject tender offer from Sanofi-Aventis

Genzyme Corp. announced today that its board of directors has voted unanimously to reject the unsolicited $69.00 per share tender offer from Sanofi-Aventis, and the board recommends that Genzyme shareholders not tender their shares to Sanofi-Aventis pursuant to the offer.

8 Oct 2010

FDA files complaint for permanent injunction against Brooklyn Juice Company

At the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice today filed a complaint for permanent injunction against a Brooklyn juice company to prevent it from processing and distributing juice products.

8 Oct 2010

AHRQ awards $1.2M grant to evaluate effectiveness of primary care transformation efforts

The Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has awarded a $1.2 million grant to Michigan State University to evaluate the effectiveness of primary care transformation efforts at Priority Health and Independent Health, a New York plan.

8 Oct 2010

USPTO issues Patent Notice of Allowance for CIP-TRAMADOL ER drug

Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc. today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Patent Notice of Allowance for CIP-TRAMADOL ER, the Company's extended-release tramadol product for the treatment of moderate to moderately severe chronic pain in adults.

8 Oct 2010

Bruker closes acquisition of instruments businesses with Veeco

Bruker Corporation today announced the closing of its acquisition of the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and the Optical Industrial Metrology (OIM) instruments businesses from Veeco Instruments, Inc. for $229.4 million in cash.

8 Oct 2010

Physicians should check fatty deposits around heart when evaluating heart problems: Researchers

Cardiac imaging researchers at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute are recommending that physicians not overlook fatty deposits around the heart when evaluating patients for risk of major heart problems.

8 Oct 2010

Speech impaired after stroke but can sing

A British professional singer and music and drama teacher, Ann Arscott who was left unable to speak after suffering a devastating stroke has discovered she can still sing. She is from Birmingham, central England and suffered a sudden stroke in April last year which left her speechless – a condition known as aphasia.

8 Oct 2010

Biomoda extends pilot clinical trial of CyPath assay for early-stage lung cancer detection

Cancer diagnostics company Biomoda, Inc. today announced in its new monthly President's Column, posted at www.biomoda.com, that it is extending the pilot clinical trial of its CyPath diagnostic assay for the detection of early-stage lung cancer to recruit additional participants for the positive control group, patients who have been diagnosed with lung cancer but have not yet begun treatment for the disease.

8 Oct 2010

HHS offers waivers as firms, insurers threaten to abandon markets

The Obama administration has granted "dozens" of waivers that will allow insurers and companies - most notably McDonald's - to continue offering health benefits that do not meet new health law requirements in an effort "to stave off threats by some health insurers to abandon markets, drop out of the business altogether or refuse to sell certain policies," The New York Times reports.

8 Oct 2010

Researchers develop new technique to detect lung cancer

Early detection is critical for improving cancer survival rates. Yet, one of the deadliest cancers in the United States, lung cancer, is notoriously difficult to detect in its early stages.

8 Oct 2010

Children who have asthma are less likely to smoke during teen years

Giuseppe Verlato, an epidemiologist at the University of Verona, asked participants to recall whether they smoked between the ages of 11 and 20 and if they had suffered from asthma as young children.

8 Oct 2010

Device maker study: Hospital middlemen arrangement wastes billions

The payment arrangements of group purchasing organizations waste billions of dollars each year, according to a new study funded by the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, a trade group that represents device makers.

8 Oct 2010

Study finds relationship between bacterial infections, acute asthma attacks in children

"We found a significant relationship between bacterial infections and acute asthma attacks - above and beyond the expected relationship between viral infections and attacks," says Hans Bisgaard, a professor of paediatrics at the DPAC.

8 Oct 2010

ARCA receives European Patent for bucindolol based treatment for heart failure

ARCA biopharma, Inc. a biopharmaceutical company developing genetically-targeted therapies for heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases, today announced that the European Patent Office has issued a patent on methods of treating heart failure patients with bucindolol based on genetic targeting.

8 Oct 2010

CQ Healthbeat examines HIV prevention research funding

The global economy has affected HIV/AIDS prevention research, so "scientists and those who fund them are struggling to set priorities among several competing research methods that could slow the spread of the disease, which causes about 2.7 million new infections worldwide a year," CQ HealthBeat reports.

8 Oct 2010

$LIPUS ultrasound can speed fracture healing$

LIPUS ultrasound can speed fracture healing

Ultrasound can speed the healing of fractures. A randomized controlled trial reported in the open access journal BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders has found that the use of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) in patients with tibial fractures which showed inadequate progress toward healing resulted in 34% greater bone mineral density (BMD) in the fracture area after 16 weeks than use of a sham device.

8 Oct 2010

Targacept announces top-line results from AZD1446 Phase 2 clinical trial for ADHD

Targacept, Inc. today announced top-line results from a Phase 2 clinical trial of AZD1446 conducted by AstraZeneca in adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

8 Oct 2010

Websites bridge gaps between patients and doctors and marketers

Conveying how well a therapy works and doing so in understandable terms isn't easy, but a group of physicians is trying to change that The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog reports.

8 Oct 2010

HIV/AIDS needs more funding: Report

Experts have said that just controlling HIV and AIDS would require finances to the tune of $397bn and $733bn over the next 20 years and unless more money is spent the pandemic will continue to spread. They said that funds need to increase from 2009 otherwise the infections could rise from 2.3 million a year to 3.2 million by 2031. This appeared in a report by the aids2031 financing group, headed by the Results for Development Institute in Washington DC.

8 Oct 2010