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The Orphan Drug Act has been around since 1983 offering tax incentives and competition protection for drugs aimed at treating rare diseases. But there have been relatively few orphan drugs developed, so the FDA is beating the bushes for more participation.

A new pill-container top called a “GlowCap” is equipped with a wireless transmitter that notifies patients when it’s time to take their medicine. WSJ’s Anna Mathews explains how it works.

Read the original: Digits: Beep! Time to Take Your Medicine/a>

And speaking of the health-overhaul proposals (see previous post), we note an armful of stories today dealing with what has become a third-rail issue — the rates at which premiums are going up for individual health plans.

Paper medical records can easily go missing, contain bad or missing information and undermine patient care. But consider the alternative, says Alexander Friedman, a fellow in maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Billy Tauzin — the former Louisiana congressman who stuck with the homespun phrases even as he pulled down $2 million a year to represent the drug industry in DC — is stepping down as the head of PhRMA, the big trade group.

The WSJ notes that he was criticized “for his support of the White House’s now-teetering plan to overhaul health care.”

Medical evacuation flights from Haiti to the U.S. started up again after HHS officials said hospitals can receive federal payments equal to 110% of Medicare rates for providing care to Haitians.

Biogen Idec has invested heavily in drug research. Genzyme has snapped up smaller companies. Neither approach has worked particularly well, this morning’s WSJ notes, and both companies under pressure from activist shareholders to beef up their performance.

Venture capital funding was way down last year, but health care fell less than other sectors. A few different sets of figures are out today — one from Dow Jones VentureSource, another from the National Venture Capital Association.

The figures from the groups differ a bit, but the broad outlines are similar.

WSJ’s health columnist Melinda Beck discusses new evidence that drinking coffee may help prevent diseases such as prostate cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

Read the original post: News Hub: Evidence of Coffee’s Health Benefits/a>

Sunshine Ludder, muses about whether her father would have lived longer had his prostate cancer been diagnosed earlier. He died at age 54. Part of the WSJ’s “Faces of Health Care” series.

See the rest here:  Faces of Health Care: Too Late to Save Her Father/a>