Piece by piece, will Obama's health-care reform law be dismantled?
The administration itself has abandoned a long-term health-care provision for seniors, and the Supreme Court will decide soon whether to take up the law. Critics see beginning of the end for Obama's health-care reforms.
Health Guideline Panels Struggle with Conflicts of Interest
By DUFF WILSON
When a federal panel recently recommended against prostate cancer screening for most men, it tried to steer clear of any suggestions of commercial bias.
All 16 members of the United States Preventive Services Task Force were vetted to ensure they had no financial conflicts that would prohibit them from voting, according to the panel’s vice chairman, Dr. Albert L. Siu.
But three other federal panels that are quietly developing major public health guidelines on the leading causes of cardiovascular disease —hypertension, cholesterol and obesity — operate under less stringent ethics recommendations.
Glaxo Settles Cases With U.S. for $3 Billion
By DUFF WILSON
The British drug company GlaxoSmithKline said Thursday that it had agreed to pay $3 billion to settle United States government civil and criminal investigations into its sales practices for numerous drugs.
The settlement would be the largest yet in a wave of federal cases against pharmaceutical companies accused of illegal marketing, surpassing the previous record of $2.3 billion paid by Pfizer in 2009. In recent years, drug companies have been prime targets of federal fraud investigations, which have recovered tens of billions of dollars for Medicaid and Medicare.
The cases against GlaxoSmithKline include illegal marketing of Avandia, a diabetes drug that was severely restricted last year after it was linked to heart risks. Company whistle-blowers and federal prosecutors said the company had paid doctors and manipulated medical research to promote the drug.
F.D.A. Officials, Hoping to Stave Off Critics, Point to Increased Drug Approvals
By GARDINER HARRIS
Federal drug officials on Thursday claimed credit for an increase in the approval of new drugs and argued that the results demonstrated the need for legislation to continue financing the current drug approval system.
The Food and Drug Administration approved 35 new drugs in the year that ended in September, a number that was surpassed only once in the past decade.
The agency approved 24 of the drugs before they were approved in any other country. And many of them were important advances, including the first new drug for lupus in 50 years, the first new drug for Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 30 years, and the first drugs for late-stagemelanoma that have been shown to prolong survival.
Data Links High Doses of Bone Drug to Cancer
By BARRY MEIER
A Medtronic product, when used in high doses during spinal fusion procedures, might increase patient cancer risks, according to data released Thursday at a national conference of spine surgeons.
The data had been given to the Food and Drug Administration by Medtronic when it sought approval to market a high-strength version of an existing bone growth product called Infuse. Based on those study findings, the F.D.A. rejected that higher-dose formulation, known as Amplify, citing concern about cancer risks.
Pilot program aims to reduce infant deaths
New Report Finds Vermont Could Save As Much As $1.8 Billion By 2020 From Shifting To Single Payer
Yesterday, the Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office and the Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration released a new report estimating the savings the state could experience if it successfully enacts the single payer system it began designing earlier this year.
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