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GOP rejects Obama's compromise on health care, wants 'new approach'

USA Today: "President Obama offered to add a handful of Republican ideas to his 10-year, $950 billion health care plan Tuesday but was rebuffed and urged to start over.The letter from Obama to the GOP signalling his interest in four specific Republican health reform ideas was met with an icy reception from Republican leaders. ... 'We were surprised and disappointed with your latest proposal to simply paper a few of these common-sense proposals over an unsalvageable bill,' wrote Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky." (Wolf and Fritze, 3/2).

4 Mar 2010

Endocyte's PRECEDENT study: DSMB recommends enrollment to continue

Endocyte, Inc., a biotech company developing guided therapeutics and diagnostics for personalized medicine, has announced that an independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) recommended that enrollment into the PRECEDENT study continue.

4 Mar 2010

Study suggests vitamin D supplements may decrease insulin resistance, fight depression

A daily dose of vitamin D may just be what Chicagoans need to get through the long winter, according to researchers at Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing (MNSON). This nutrient lifts mood during cold weather months when days are short and more time is spent indoors.

4 Mar 2010

Older women with suspected ovarian cancer 'face referral delays'

Older women with suspected ovarian cancer are often not referred for investigation as quickly as younger women, new research suggests.

4 Mar 2010

Androxal Type C meeting: Repros Therapeutics receives FDA’s version of minutes

Repros Therapeutics Inc. today announced that the Company has received the FDA’s version of the minutes of the Type C meeting held on January 25, 2010. The minutes confirmed the Company’s interpretation of the points the Agency made during the meeting. In correspondence from the FDA prior to the meeting the Agency noted that they could not currently agree with the Company’s stated indication for the use of Androxal® in the treatment of secondary hypogonadism in men wishing to preserve fertility.

4 Mar 2010

Women who participate in sorority rush display body dissatisfaction and eating disorder behaviors

Undergraduate women who join a sorority are more likely to judge their own bodies from an outsider's perspective (known as self-objectification) and display higher levels of bulimic attitudes and behaviors than those who do not take part in the sorority's recruitment process.

4 Mar 2010

PCF: PSA screening remains valuable tool for identifying potential prostate disease

Responding to continued debate over PSA screening, and today’s American Cancer Society statement, the Prostate Cancer Foundation reiterated its position that PSA screening remains a valuable tool, in combination with other tools, for identifying potential prostate disease, including cancer.

4 Mar 2010

Wasteful medical spending clogs health care industry

CNN: "Consider this: For every dollar the nation spends on health care, 50 cents is wasted. According to a 2008 report by Pricewaterhouse Cooper's Health Research Institute, wasteful spending accounts for $1.2 trillion of the $2.2 trillion spent on health care in the United States." CNN says the waste includes "costs associated with inefficient insurance claims processing, defensive medicine, preventable hospital readmissions, medical errors, and unnecessary emergency room visits."

4 Mar 2010

Repligen acquires BioFlash

Repligen Corporation announced today that it has acquired the assets of BioFlash Partners, LLC, (BioFlash) including a technology platform for the production of pre-packed, "plug and play" chromatography columns. This patented technology enables economical production of chromatography columns in a format that is ready for use in the production of a broad range of biopharmaceuticals including monoclonal antibodies, vaccines and recombinant proteins.

4 Mar 2010

Study: Salvage targeted therapy can be suitable for elderly patients with NSCLC

Research published in the March issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology sought to determine whether differences existed in tolerance and efficacy between patients age 70 and over and younger patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving salvage targeted therapy with epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) or chemotherapy.

4 Mar 2010

Community support critical for reducing childhood obesity

Community support of school obesity prevention programs is critical to achieving a significant decrease in obesity among children, according to researchers at the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living, which is part of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

4 Mar 2010

Scientists identify two proteins that serve as biomarkers for tracking the spread of colon cancer

Scientists in China are reporting discovery of two proteins present in the blood of people with colon cancer that may serve as the potential biomarkers for accurately predicting whether the disease will spread. Their study is in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, a monthly publication.

4 Mar 2010

Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prizes awarded to inventive students nationwide

A scientific "Renaissance man" whose work spans the fields of mathematics, linguistics, biotechnology and polymer physics, Erez Lieberman-Aiden, graduate student at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, has been named the winner of the prestigious $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. Lieberman-Aiden, one of four 2010 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prize winners announced today, was selected for the breadth and depth of his innovations.

4 Mar 2010

Stimulus spurs health IT adoption, but rush may hurt programs' quality

Within the next two years, 58 percent of small physician practices surveyed by Accenture and Harris Interactive will have begun using electronic medical records, Computerworld/BusinessWeek reports. Only 15 percent of those doctors' practices are now using the technology, and the shift is likely driven by federal subsidies to help physicians buy the technology, as well as future penalties for those who do not. Both the subsidies and penalties are a result of last year's economic stimulus package (Mearian, 3/2).

4 Mar 2010

Tantaline receives FDA approval for tantalum surface alloy material

Tantaline®, the world’s leading producer of surface alloys for valves, fittings, instrumentation, and custom products in highly corrosive and/or hot acid environments, today announced that it has been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

4 Mar 2010

Foodborne illness raises U.S healthcare costs

Acute foodborne illnesses cost the United States an estimated $152 billion per year in healthcare, workplace and other economic losses, according to a report published today by the Produce Safety Project (PSP).

4 Mar 2010

Obama to include GOP ideas in health proposal today

With President Barack Obama's release today of his latest health reform plan, he hopes to propel the dialogue forward as he also signals willingness to incorporate GOP ideas into his proposal.

4 Mar 2010

New chemical classes of preclinical compounds identified for Alzheimer’s disease

In an announcement today, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Medisyn Technologies, Inc. said they have identified new chemical classes of preclinical compounds that may eventually lead to the first effective management of toxic amyloid aggregation and accumulation in the brain— an abnormal biological process long suspected by many researchers to be a major culprit in the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

4 Mar 2010

Hand sanitizers sold in Puerto Rico contain harmful bacteria, says FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers in Puerto Rico that two hand sanitizers - "Bee-Shield Hand Sanitizer" with Aloe Vera (10 fl. oz. or 1 gallon bottles) and "MD Quality Hand Sanitizer" with Aloe Vera (10 fl oz. bottles) - contain high levels of a bacteria, Burkholderia cepacia, that can cause serious infections in humans.

4 Mar 2010

Obama presses forward in health overhaul efforts

The Wall Street Journal: "President Barack Obama made a final push for comprehensive health-care legislation, calling on lawmakers to schedule a vote in the next few weeks." Obama urged Congress to "press ahead with a comprehensive bill," which will involve using reconciliation. "But he didn't use the term reconciliation, instead calling for a simple 'up or down vote.'" He appealed to public frustration with insurance companies and emphasized that he had included GOP ideas into his plan (Meckler, 3/3).

4 Mar 2010