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Health law brings a 'host of new taxes' and billions in tax credits

The Washington Post/Fiscal Times: Tax credits and other breaks -- including $50 billion a year in subsidies for low-income people to buy insurance under the new health law -- were "worth more than $1 trillion to recipients last year. That's more than the government spent on Social Security, and nearly enough to balance the federal budget." These and other so-called "tax expenditures" could total $3 trillion by 2020.

3 May 2010

HTG, JWCI collaborate to develop new approaches for early stage primary cutaneous melanoma diagnosis

HTG, Inc., provider of the quantitative Nuclease Protection Assay (qNPA™), today announced it signed a collaboration agreement with the John Wayne Cancer Institute (JWCI) at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. Under the terms of the agreement, HTG and JWCI (Department of Molecular Oncology, Dave S. B. Hoon, Ph.D., Director) will collaborate to generate a novel mRNA signature that can measure the gene expression differences in melanoma and benign nevi using HTG's qNPA technology in classical surgical pathology samples.

3 May 2010

Ecolab launches new OptiPro Instrument Reprocessing Program

Ecolab Inc. today announced the launch of its new OptiPro™ Instrument Reprocessing Program, a comprehensive approach to instrument reprocessing that features Ecolab's solid technology and advanced formulations. The program is supported by Ecolab's service and training on industry best practices to achieve improved patient outcomes and process standardization. The announcement was made at the 2010 International Association of Healthcare Central Service Material Management Annual Meeting in San Diego.

3 May 2010

CQ examines foreign aid budget

CQ examines the challenges involved with passing the Obama administration's FY 2011 "budget request for the State Department and foreign operations." Though eight former secretaries of state recently urged Congress not to cut foreign aid, "lawmakers and aides involved in the appropriations process say that getting President [Barack] Obama all the money he wants will be a really tough sell."

3 May 2010

NIAID researchers initiate trial of DAS181 in patients with asthma, bronchiectasis

NexBio, Inc. announced today the initiation of a trial of DAS181 (Fludase®) in patients with the respiratory conditions asthma and bronchiectasis, being conducted by researchers with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This trial will examine the effects of DAS181 in subjects with well-controlled or stable pulmonary disease.

3 May 2010

California community health centers face potentially crippling budget cuts

North Bay (Santa Rosa, Calif.) Business Journal: "While community health centers are widely seen as winners with the passage of a sweeping health bill in late March, such centers in California face potentially crippling state budget cuts, which could offset potential gains that won't take effect until 2014, according to clinic directors throughout the North Bay.

3 May 2010

Interim study results demonstrate anti-tumor activity of CytRx's INNO-206 in myeloma tumor cells

CytRx Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in oncology, today announced interim study results that showed its doxorubicin prodrug INNO-206 demonstrated statistically significant anti-tumor activity in human myeloma tumor cells growing in immune-deficient mice compared to a control group, while exhibiting significantly less toxicity than doxorubicin even though INNO-206 was administered at much higher doses.

3 May 2010

Baltimore hospitals buying, consolidating doctors' practices in bid for efficiency

Hospitals and other systems in the Baltimore area are "buying practices, forming management agreements or structuring joint ventures with primary care practices that cannot afford to buy necessary electronic health records systems, hire more support staff or add another physician" in a bid to consolidate primary care in the area and lower overhead, the Baltimore Business Journal reports. For many doctors, the cost of doing business in a small, office-based setting is becoming prohibitive.

3 May 2010

Acucela to present data on ACU-4429 oral visual cycle modulator for dry AMD at Retina International meeting

Acucela, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing new treatments for blinding eye diseases, announced today that Ryo Kubota, M.D., Ph.D., Acucela's chairman, president and chief executive officer, has been invited to participate in Retina International's annual Scientific & Medical Advisory Board meeting being held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on May 3, 2010.

3 May 2010

Today's Opinions and Editorials: The end of insurance rescissions, lessons from the health care rollout and the deficit panel's tough decisions

A lot of people laughed when Sue Lowden, the Nevada Republican running for the U.S. Senate, suggested last month that people start paying for their medical care with chickens. I didn't (Jonathan Cohn, 5/3).

3 May 2010

eMix establishes first European distributor agreement with DFC Systems

eMix, the new business venture incubated by DR Systems, announced it has established its first European distributor agreement, with DFC Systems (Munich, Germany). Together with DFC, eMix will exhibit its cloud-based technology for sharing medical imaging studies and reports at the 91st German Radiology Congress.

3 May 2010

BSD Medical to sell 1,644,737 common stock shares in registered direct offering

BSD Medical Corporation today announced that it entered into a securities purchase agreement with two institutional investors for the sale of 1,644,737 shares of its common stock in a registered direct offering at $1.52 per share. In addition, warrants to purchase 1,233,553 shares of common stock in the aggregate will be issued to the investors.

3 May 2010

Computer-based system automatically tracks radiation dose exposure in patients receiving CT scan

Researchers have developed a computer-based system that can automatically track patient-specific radiation dose exposure (based on a patient's size and weight) on every patient that receives a computed tomography (CT) scan, providing patients with a way to start tracking their cumulative health care-related radiation exposure, according to a study to be presented at the ARRS 2010 Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA.

3 May 2010

Calif. doctors say e-health saved lives; in Mich., doctors visit patients online

Reuters/The Washington Post: An electronic medical system first introduced in 2007 has shown a 20 percent drop in hospital deaths -- the equivalent of about 36 lives saved -- over 18-months at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto California, doctors there have found. The system, a computerized physician order entry, or CPOE, allows "doctors to relay prescriptions to pharmacists without delay, and without the need for the pharmacist to decipher doctors' scrawl."

3 May 2010

Targacept, AstraZeneca expand TC-5619 development program to include ADHD, Alzheimer's disease

Targacept, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel NNR Therapeutics (TM), today announced an amendment to its 2005 collaboration agreement with AstraZeneca expanding the TC-5619 development program. In addition to the current development of TC-5619 in cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia (CDS), the amended terms provide for parallel development in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and potentially Alzheimer's disease.

3 May 2010

States decide on risk pools as first major health law decision

Politico reports that establishing high-risk insurance pools, the first major decision after the enactment of health care reform, "has come and gone with the decisions so far made mostly along party lines." Many Democratic governors "decided to help the Department of Health and Human Services by creating the pools themselves with federal funding.

3 May 2010

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics seeks FDA orphan drug status for ICT-107 dendritic-cell based vaccine for GBM

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics announced today it has filed an orphan drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its cancer treatment candidate ICT-107. ICT-107 is a dendritic-cell based cancer vaccine product which targets glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most prevalent, aggressive and malignant form of primary brain tumors.

3 May 2010

Curis completes enrollment in Phase I clinical trial of CUDC-101 HDAC, EGFR and HER2 inhibitor

Curis, Inc., a drug development company seeking to develop next generation targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer treatment, today announced that it has successfully completed enrollment and treatment of the last patient in its Phase I clinical trial of CUDC-101, Curis' first-in-class HDAC, EGFR and HER2 inhibitor.

3 May 2010

Protect eyes from sun's UV rays to decrease risk of eye diseases, disorders

With summer right around the corner, more people will be spending time outdoors and UV protection will be top of mind. Unfortunately, most people think about the protection of their skin, when they should also be considering the safety of their eyes. In fact, according to the American Optometric Association's (AOA) American Eye-Q® survey, only one-third of Americans said UV protection is the most important factor they consider when purchasing sunglasses.

3 May 2010

As doctors frustration with Medicare payments grows, a few opt to leave the system

American Medical News reports on doctors' frustrations with the Medicare program and looks at the practice of Juliette Madrigal-Dersch, an internist in Marble Falls, Texas, who "decided to see Medicare patients only on a private-contracting basis. That means neither she nor her patients can claim any payment from Medicare. It also means she can charge what her services actually cost, not just what the government says it will pay. She also can choose not to charge anything, as is her policy for patients age 90 and older."

3 May 2010

Medical News

Health law brings a 'host of new taxes' and billions in tax credits

HTG, JWCI collaborate to develop new approaches for early stage primary cutaneous melanoma diagnosis

Ecolab launches new OptiPro Instrument Reprocessing Program

CQ examines foreign aid budget

NIAID researchers initiate trial of DAS181 in patients with asthma, bronchiectasis

California community health centers face potentially crippling budget cuts

Interim study results demonstrate anti-tumor activity of CytRx's INNO-206 in myeloma tumor cells

Baltimore hospitals buying, consolidating doctors' practices in bid for efficiency

Acucela to present data on ACU-4429 oral visual cycle modulator for dry AMD at Retina International meeting

Today's Opinions and Editorials: The end of insurance rescissions, lessons from the health care rollout and the deficit panel's tough decisions

eMix establishes first European distributor agreement with DFC Systems

BSD Medical to sell 1,644,737 common stock shares in registered direct offering

Computer-based system automatically tracks radiation dose exposure in patients receiving CT scan

Calif. doctors say e-health saved lives; in Mich., doctors visit patients online

Targacept, AstraZeneca expand TC-5619 development program to include ADHD, Alzheimer's disease

States decide on risk pools as first major health law decision

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics seeks FDA orphan drug status for ICT-107 dendritic-cell based vaccine for GBM

Curis completes enrollment in Phase I clinical trial of CUDC-101 HDAC, EGFR and HER2 inhibitor

Protect eyes from sun's UV rays to decrease risk of eye diseases, disorders

As doctors frustration with Medicare payments grows, a few opt to leave the system

Modular, Scalable, Intelligent: How n6 Is Rethinking NGS Library Prep

Evolving spectrophotometry for modern biopharma workflows

Scaling B-cell cloning workflows for antibody development

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