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EPA declares first-ever public health emergency in Montana

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday declared its first-ever "public health emergency," asbestos contamination near Libby and Troy, Mont., northwestern mining towns, the Associated Press reports.

18 Jun 2009

Bingaman, Wyden among key health reform lawmakers in the news

Newspapers highlight a few of the key congressional players in the health care debate. Politico: "There's a little bit of Gary Cooper in Jeff Bingaman, and that's not bad for President Barack Obama if health care becomes the political High Noon this year that so many expect."

18 Jun 2009

Former Senate majority leaders outline health care compromise

Three former Senate majority leaders unveiled a health care reform plan Wednesday that would tax health benefits with value over what members of Congress are given and would mandate that both employers and individuals carry insurance, Kaiser Health News reports.

18 Jun 2009

Free clinics affected by primary care physician shortage

In the face of growing numbers of uninsured and low-income patients due to the economy, some free clinics are having difficulty meeting the increased demand, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

18 Jun 2009

Next year's rising health costs may not be slowed by reform

"Employers who offer health insurance coverage could see a 9 percent cost increase next year, and their workers may face an even bigger hit, according to a report Thursday from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers," the Associated Press reports.

18 Jun 2009

New polls find support for health reform, fear of costs

A series of new polls this week show support for major health care reform, but trepidation about certain policy proposals, and anxiety about quickly growing health care costs, the possibility of losing coverage, and the federal budget deficit in general.

18 Jun 2009

Republicans scold HELP Democrats over reform bill's price tag, government control

"It was particularly devastating on Wednesday when [Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah]" – a longtime friend of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., – "warned Democrats on the panel that they have already made some grave errors in their effort to write legislation overhauling the health care system," reports the New York Times in The Caucus Blog.

18 Jun 2009

Timeline for health legislation slips as HELP, Finance Committees hit snags

Senators delayed work Wednesday on one health care reform bill and hit partisan roadblocks on another as key lawmakers insisted they are still on track to have a bill on the floor by the middle of summer, The Washington Post reports.

18 Jun 2009

Senate Health Committee begins amending reform bill

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee began amending their version of sweeping health overhaul legislation Thursday, days after a Congressional Budget Office report found the bill would cost $1 trillion over ten years, leaving 37 million people uninsured and Senate Republicans skeptical, the Associated Press reports.

18 Jun 2009

Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline will donate influenza vaccines to WHO

The drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis will donate millions of doses of a vaccine that offers protection against the H1N1 (swine flu) virus to the WHO once the vaccine is ready, the company's chief executive officer announced Tuesday, Reuters reports (Elsner, Reuters, 6/17).

18 Jun 2009

Uganda to distribute insecticide-treated nets to all citizens

The Ugandan ministry of health said that everyone in the country will receive free insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to prevent malaria beginning in September, James Kakooza, the state minister for primary health care, said, New Vision/allAfrica.com reports.

18 Jun 2009

PEPFAR funds used to encourage Swaziland couples to get tested together

CNN examines the success of an HIV testing campaign in Swaziland that urges couples to get tested together. "The nationwide initiative - funded by the United States government and implemented by global charity 'Population Services International' (PSI) - is aimed at couples because tests can be useless if partners are not aware of the others' HIV status," CNN writes.

18 Jun 2009

Tibotec, TB Alliance join to expedite development of promising tuberculosis drug

The pharmaceutical company Tibotec said it will join with the non-profit Global Alliance for Tuberculosis Development (TB Alliance) to speed up the development of the experimental TB drug TMC207, Health-e/IOL reports (Thom, Health-e/IOL, 6/18). Tibotec, which is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, announced the news on Wednesday at the Pacific Health Summit in Seattle (Doughton, Seattle Times, 6/18).

18 Jun 2009

U.S. recommits to improving health, education in Nigeria

The Guardian examines the recent U.S. commitment to continue support for the development of Nigeria's health and education sector by Anne Fleuret, Nigeria's acting mission director of USAID.

18 Jun 2009

House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee approves FY10 funding measure

The House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee "unanimously approved its FY10 funding measure without any amendments" on Wednesday, "deferring expected fights for the full committee markup in a week," CongressDaily reports.

18 Jun 2009

Seattle Genetics starts trial of SGN-35 for anaplastic large cell lymphoma

Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN), has announced that it has initiated a phase II clinical trial of SGN-35 for patients with relapsed or refractory systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). SGN-35 is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that utilizes Seattle Genetics’ proprietary technology to empower antibodies by linking them to potent cell-killing drugs.

18 Jun 2009

Antisense Therapeutics trial of ATL1101 in prostate cancer shows promise

Antisense Therapeutics Ltd. (ASX: ANP) has reported further positive results from its collaborative preclinical research studies on the therapeutic potential of ATL1101 in prostate cancer. In experimental models, ATL1101 treatment significantly enhanced the tumor-suppressive effect of the cancer drug Paclitaxel. Paclitaxel is one of a class of drugs known as taxanes.

18 Jun 2009

Medical insurers' billing claims can help researchers track patient complications

Billing claims from health insurance companies can provide insights on the long-term health of kidney transplant patients, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).

18 Jun 2009

Omega-3 fatty acids may protect against progression of age-related macular degeneration

Omega-3 fatty acids found in fatty fish such as tuna and salmon may protect against progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), but the benefits appear to depend on the stage of disease and whether certain supplements are taken, report researchers at the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research (LNVR), Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University.

18 Jun 2009