Posts Tagged ‘Wsj’


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  • Not ‘War and Peace’ But Orphan-Drug Applications Are Few

    Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 03:47 | Comments Off

    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.

    FDA staffers recently ran a two-day workshop in Claremont, Calif., to help drug developers fill out the application to get orphan-drug status, the WSJ says in an article this morning. Another workshop is planned for the University of Minnesota in ..read more

  • Digits: Beep! Time to Take Your Medicine

    Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 06:02 | Comments Off

    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>

  • The Insurance-Premium Kettle That Keeps Getting Hotter

    Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 04:31 | Comments Off

    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.

    The cost of health policies has been an eye-of-the-beholder issue for a long time in the overhaul debate. There’s been broad agreement that individual rates are headed up, but overhaul opponents have contended they would rise even more under Democratic-backed health-system changes, while the ..read more

  • A Doctor’s Problem With Electronic Records

    Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 05:31 | Comments Off

    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.

    As a resident fresh out of medical school, Friedman was working an an ememrgency room switching over to electronic medical records, he writes in a guest column on WSJ.com. Checking boxes and inserting codes required by the new system became the focus rather than ..read more

  • Wanted: Ex-Congressman. Must Love Drugs. Good Pay

    Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 01:03 | Comments Off

    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.”

    Exhibit A is the letter John Boehner, the House Republican leader, sent last year to Tauzin, to complain ..read more

  • Feds to Pay 110% of Medicare Rates for Haiti Evacuees

    Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 05:00 | Comments Off

    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.

    A flight last night took 17 patients to Palm Beach, according to the Miami Herald. (That’s one of the arrivals in the photo.) The medical evacuations had stopped last Wednesday after Gov. Charlie Crist had said that Florida hospitals – the destination of the vast majority of Haiti earthquake victims ..read more

  • Biogen Idec, Genzyme and the Struggles of Big Biotech

    Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 01:39 | Comments Off

    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.

    Perennial activist Carl Icahn yesterday gave notice that he intends to nominate three directors to Biogen’s board, following up his success last year in landing two director slots on the board. The company it would evaluate the Icahn candidates, according to Reuters. Icahn and ..read more

  • Venture Capital, ‘09: Health Care Got Big Piece of Smaller Pie

    Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 00:51 | Comments Off

    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.

    VC deals totaled $21.41 billion last year, down 31% from 2008, according to VentureSource. For the first time, health-care companies got more VC money ($7.73 billion, down 14% from ..read more

  • News Hub: Evidence of Coffee’s Health Benefits

    Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 at 01:28 | Comments Off

    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>

  • Faces of Health Care: Too Late to Save Her Father

    Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 07:46 | Comments Off

    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>