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John C. Lincoln Hospital first to use commercially-available LungPoint system

Broncus Technologies, Inc., a medical device company focused on developing minimally-invasive innovations for lung diseases, announced today at the American College of Chest Physicians CHEST 2009 meeting that John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix is the first hospital in the U.S. to use the commercially-available LungPoint system.

2 Nov 2009

McCain's health care adviser is losing his own coverage

Sen. John McCain's top health care adviser in the presidential campaign is about to lose his health care coverage, providing a face to a common dilemma.

2 Nov 2009

Dendreon submits an amended BLA for PROVENGE active cellular immunotherapy

Dendreon Corporation today announced that it has completed the submission of the amended Biologics License Application (BLA) for PROVENGE® (sipuleucel-T), the Company's lead investigational product, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dendreon is seeking licensure for PROVENGE for men with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

2 Nov 2009

A look at the odds associated with the influenza virus

What are the odds you will be one of the unlucky ones who gets the flu this year? Book of Odds has launched "Flu Week," a fascinating look at the odds associated with the influenza virus.

2 Nov 2009

New glucose monitoring system from Edwards Lifesciences and Dexcom receives the CE Mark

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, the leader in the sciences of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring, and DexCom, Inc., a medical device company focused on the design, development and commercialization of continuous glucose monitoring systems, today announced the receipt of CE Mark for an automatic glucose monitoring system.

2 Nov 2009

LFB Biotechnologies exercises its option to purchase $12.8 million of stocks in GTC Biotherapeutics

GTC Biotherapeutics, Inc. announced that LFB Biotechnologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of LFB S.A. (Laboratoire français du Fractionnement et des Biotechnologies S.A., Les Ulis, France) and a strategic shareholder in GTC, has exercised its option to purchase $12.8 million of additional convertible preferred stock under the terms described in the financing agreements approved by GTC shareholders in July 2009. This transaction provides $6.4 million of new cash proceeds to GTC.

2 Nov 2009

Enzo Biochem announces results of EGS21 clinical trial for treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

Enzo Biochem Inc. announced today that favorable results of the Company’s clinical trial for treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. The study was a randomized double blind placebo controlled format of EGS21, Enzo’s orally administered beta glucosylceramide formulation, designed to evaluate safety and efficacy of the study drug in patients with NASH and its associated metabolic syndrome.

2 Nov 2009

Ligand Pharmaceuticals amends license agreement with Exelixis

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has amended its license agreement with Exelixis, Inc. as a result of which Ligand is now entitled to receive royalties on net sales of future products from a mineralocorticoid receptor program and a one-time $75,000 payment for providing access to certain patent rights.

2 Nov 2009

Insurers, other interest groups prepare for final health reform votes

Insurance companies are arguing that the health reform legislation progressing in Congress would increase premium costs for many Americans. Meanwhile, some of the coalitions have begun to splinter.

2 Nov 2009

Click4Care releases next-generation Utilization Management module for health plan users

Click4Care, a leading provider of care management software for payors, today announced the next-generation Utilization Management (UM) module for its industry leading software platform. By leveraging the UM solution’s extensive configurability, payors and providers can achieve greater levels of productivity while improving clinical, administrative and financial performances.

2 Nov 2009

A return to the doctor's house call may aid health care reform

Dr. Peter Boling provides house calls for some of Richmond's oldest and sickest patients as a geriatrician and head of general medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. The Associated Press/Richmond Times Dispatch reports that "he is on a mission: To convince Congress that the old-fashioned house call could be a fresh answer to the modern-day health care reform dilemma.

2 Nov 2009

A look at faculty health

On average, research shows, the United States loses the equivalent of at least one entire medical school class each year to suicide1 - as many as 400 physicians. The book Faculty Health in Academic Medicine: Scientists, Physicians, and the Pressures of Success (Humana Press/Springer), by faculty at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and other national medical experts, breaks new ground in a first-of-its-kind look at faculty health.

2 Nov 2009

Study of combination therapy versus monotherapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension

Gilead Sciences, Inc., in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), today announced plans for an international, event-driven (morbidity and mortality) clinical trial to study combination therapy versus monotherapy in a first-line treatment setting for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

2 Nov 2009

NIH awards $1.2 million to GE Global Research to develop a low-cost transducer

In the quest to expand access to high quality prenatal care to communities with limited healthcare services, GE Global Research, the technology development arm for the General Electric Company, has been awarded a two-year, $1.2 million project under the federal stimulus program from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a low-cost transducer for portable ultrasound systems that maintains the highest degree of image quality.

2 Nov 2009

Today's opinions and editorials

When conservatives scream about socialized medicine and death panels, you should tune them out. But lately conservatives have been making an argument you should hear. It's about whether we can believe Congress when it promises to raise taxes or cut spending--and, as such, whether we can believe that health care reform can actually be fiscally responsible (Jonathan Cohn, 11/2).

2 Nov 2009

Cyberonics to develop medical devices with cutting edge technology for persons suffering from epilepsy

Cyberonics, Inc. today announced another in a series of collaborations around seizure detection technology aimed at advancing its development of new and more efficacious medical devices for persons suffering from epilepsy.

2 Nov 2009

EnzymeRx commences patient enrollment in Uricase-PEG 20 phase 1 study

EnzymeRx, LLC (www.enzymerx.com), a clinical-stage biotechnology company, announced that it has launched its first clinical study of Uricase-PEG 20. Subjects have begun enrolling in a phase 1 safety, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic study of single intravenous doses of Uricase-PEG 20.

2 Nov 2009

Heart, cancer doctors get break on scheduled Medicare pay cuts

Heart and cancer doctors will get a smaller fee cut next year from Medicare, the U.S. government program for the elderly, than the Obama administration first sought in a move to shift money to family physicians," Bloomberg reports. Earlier this year, Medicare officials said they would cut 10 percent of payments for the two specialties. Now, they plan on making the reductions over four years, instead.

2 Nov 2009

The Clorox Company anounces fiscal 2010 first-quarter results

The Clorox Company today reported strong earnings growth, driven by robust gross margin expansion and modest volume growth, for its first quarter, which ended Sept. 30.

2 Nov 2009

CBO: Few Americans would sign up for public health insurance plan

The New York Times: "More and more, the Great Health Care Debate of 2009 is a numbers game. And the longer the debate goes on, the squishier the numbers seem to get. For months, many leading Democrats, including President Obama, have pushed for the creation of a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers. A main argument was that a public plan would save people money. It would not be under pressure to earn profits, pay high private-sector salaries or deny needed care."

2 Nov 2009