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Wave of tax changes comes with health law

The new health law will make a variety of changes to the tax code, including higher levies on the wealthy and millions of dollars in lost deductions for some corporations.

9 Apr 2010

Dangerous agitations: Nicotine replacement therapy needs to be tested in ICU setting

Nicotine withdrawal can cause dangerous agitation in intensive care patients. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Critical Care found that, compared to non-smokers, agitated smokers were more likely to accidentally remove tubes and catheters, require supplemental sedative, analgesic or anti-psychotic medications, or need physical restraints.

9 Apr 2010

Russia's first implant of SynCardia temporary CardioWest Total Artificial Heart performed on 60-year-old female

On March 23, the Bakoulev Scientific Center for Cardiovascular Surgery (BSCCS) in Moscow performed Russia's first implant of the SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart. The patient, a 60-year-old female suffering from biventricular heart failure, is the world's 850th recipient of the Total Artificial Heart.

9 Apr 2010

Sanofi-Aventis acquires exclusive global rights to CureDM's Pancreate

CureDM, LLC announced today that an agreement has been signed with Sanofi-Aventis for the exclusive worldwide license of Pancreate™, a novel islet neogenesis agent for the treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. CureDM is a privately held biopharmaceutical company whose scientists discovered Pancreate™, a first-in-class human peptide therapeutic. Several key Composition of Matter and Use patents have been issued to CureDM for this potentially transforming treatment approach for diabetes.

9 Apr 2010

State Roundup: Mass. insurer standoff eases, Wis. preps for federal overhaul

The Boston Globe: "Seeking to tone down their dispute with state regulators, two Massachusetts health insurers yesterday said they will, as ordered, resume making new policies available for individuals and small businesses — using last year's base rates, not the requested double-digit increases rejected by the state last week" (Weisman, 4/8).

9 Apr 2010

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals commences Phase 3 registration clinical trial for perifosine

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today the initiation of a Phase 3 registration clinical trial for KRX-0401 (perifosine), the Company's novel, potentially first-in-class, oral anti-cancer agent that inhibits Akt activation in the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway, for the treatment of patients with refractory advanced colorectal cancer.

9 Apr 2010

Savings from computerized medical records are hard to measure

Kaiser Health News staff writer Christopher Weaver writes: "When it comes to health policy, few ideas find as much bipartisan support as the notion that widespread adoption of health information technology could improve medical care and save money.

9 Apr 2010

Sagent Pharmaceuticals raises $40M through Series B financing

Sagent Pharmaceuticals, a privately held specialty pharmaceutical company, announced today that it has raised $40 million through two tranches of a strategic Series B financing. In this round, a $10 million investment was made by Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Hisun), and the remaining $30 million was contributed by an unnamed China-focused private equity investment fund. To date, including this financing, Sagent has raised $153 million in equity capital.

9 Apr 2010

University of Southampton, Synairgen Research scientists commence Phase II trial of interferon beta for asthma

Scientists from the University of Southampton and Synairgen Research Ltd, a respiratory drug development company spun out from the University, have begun a Phase II study into the effectiveness of the drug interferon beta for asthma patients.

9 Apr 2010

Those who understand insurance coverage more cost-conscious, study says

The Associated Press/The Boston Herald: "Workers who better understand their health insurance plans — from their share of premiums to co-payments for doctor office and emergency room visits — are more likely to make more cost-efficient decisions, a new study finds. The study, which surveyed about 1,500 government workers in Massachusetts," was published in The American Journal of Managed Care.

9 Apr 2010

Fate Therapeutics to acquire Ottawa biotechnology company Verio Therapeutics

Fate Therapeutics, Inc. announced today a definitive agreement to acquire Verio Therapeutics Inc., a privately held biotechnology company based in Ottawa, Ontario, which is developing drug candidates targeting the activation of endogenous stem cells. Verio Therapeutics is advancing the work of several of Canada's leading stem cell scientists, including Michael Rudnicki, Ph.D., FRSC, and Lynn Arthur Megeney, Ph.D., who have made breakthrough discoveries relating to muscle and pancreatic regeneration.

9 Apr 2010

PSA test distress, study urges caution

A new study wants men to be informed about risks associated with screening for prostate cancer. The research has brought out that the prostate cancer tests can cause significant psychological distress to the men undergoing the screening. 330 men were studied by the University of Bristol as they underwent the tests and after they finished.

9 Apr 2010

Roughly 100,000 people are dropped from Tennessee's Medicaid program

Kaiser Health News: "About 100,000 people -- mostly elderly or disabled residents -- have been dropped [from Tennessee's Medicaid program] since January 2009, including approximately 37,000 who had relied on the state program for all their health care needs. Coverage for 8,000 children was also reassessed, but a TennCare spokeswoman said the number of children ultimately cut from the program could not be verified.

9 Apr 2010

Cell Therapeutics receives FDA Complete Response Letter for Pixuvri NDA

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that it had received a Complete Response Letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding its New Drug Application for Pixuvri™ (pixantrone dimaleate) for relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma ("NHL").

9 Apr 2010

ReVision Optics initiates US clinical trial of PresbyLens corneal inlay

ReVision Optics, a leading company in the research, development and manufacture of custom optical products to correct and maintain vision, announced today that it has begun its US clinical trial of the PresbyLens® corneal inlay. The clinical trial will evaluate the PresbyLens® corneal inlay for the correction of presbyopia, the age-related loss of near vision. The study began on April 6th with the treatment of three subjects by clinical investigator Dr. Stephen Slade of the Slade & Baker Vision Center in Houston, Texas.

9 Apr 2010

Much debate over Brumby health plan

Victorian Premier John Brumby on Thursday proposed an alternative plan to the Prime Minister’s idea of gaining 30% of the GST revenues and give funding control to local hospital networks. According to the alternative 31-page health manifesto put forth by Brumby States should retain control of their hospitals. The Commonwealth proposed to cover the entire bill for primary health care and pick up 60 per cent of the tab for public hospitals. It will retain one-third of GST revenue to help pay for the reforms. Mr Brumby is holding out for extra money from the Commonwealth and a 50-50 funding model for public hospitals.

9 Apr 2010

New CMS web site shines light on Medicare spending

A new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Web site is making more claims data available to the public, Modern Healthcare reports. The so-called "CMS Dashboard" reveals Medicare spending for the top 25 conditions in hospitals, and allows users to compare spending by state, conditions by spending and to review the top-10-spending states for each condition. Medicare Advantage patients are not included in the data set (Evans, 4/7).

9 Apr 2010

More states join lawsuits against federal health reforms

Business Week: Eighteen states are now challenging the new health law. "Indiana, North Dakota, Mississippi, Nevada and Arizona will be added to the suit filed March 23 by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, he said today in a statement."

9 Apr 2010

Connectyx Technologies Holdings Group, Consult A Doctor sign joint venture

Connectyx Technologies Holdings Group Inc. is pleased to announce that the Company has signed a joint marketing agreement with Consult A Doctor to provide MedFlash® Personal Health Manager (PHM) to the more than 36 million Americans who are currently being treated via Telemedicine.

9 Apr 2010

12 infected with Hepatitis C by a doctor at clinic in Victoria

Hepatitis C is a vial infection that is spread much like HIV with shared needles, blood or body fluids. The Victorian Police has been brought in to investigate a cluster of 12 hepatitis C positive cases who attended a late-term abortion clinic in Melbourne.

9 Apr 2010