Healthcare

From the December 19, 2005 issue of BioCentury, a biotechnology industry publication available only by subscription, comes a story entitled “FDA seizes imported drugs.” FDA said that in 1,700 parcels intercepted at three U.S. airports over a few days in August, only 15% of drugs that were promoted as “Canadian” actually originated in Canada. The…

From Tuesday’s Pawtucket Times…The tentative contract agreement, reached in private talks conducted well below the public radar, besides the 3 percent pay increase would change no other contract language, including the current lack of a health coverage co-pay. School Committee Chairman Alan Tenreiro confirmed those details Monday night. Addressing the lack of a co-pay provision,…

This would certainly be good news: In recent months, a number of researchers have begun to assemble intriguing evidence that it is possible to generate embryonic stem cells without having to create or destroy new human embryos. The research is still young and largely unpublished, and in some cases it is limited to animal cells.…

I have had the privilege of working in the healthcare industry since 1983, joining my first biotechnology startup company in 1985. Just like physics had many of its heady years in the early part of the 20th century, the last 30 years have been similarly exciting times in biology. And there is no end in…

A new report by Rudy Giuliani has found some flaws in importing drugs from other countries for use in the U.S. I note that the report was commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, so that must be weighed. But I would also stress that Giuliani has certainly shown his integrity in the past.…

Providence Journal editor Don Sockol ends with a question a piece that laments his daughter’s fear of losing healthcare if she returns to Rhode Island, loses whatever job allowed her to move back, and loses her health insurance: There’s been talk about school systems banding into larger purchasing groups to cut health-insurance costs. What if…

I’d already added the Patients First Coalition to the list of links at left, but looking at their “Fast Facts on Why Rhode Island Needs Medical Liability Reform,” I thought the following particularly noteworthy: 48% of physicians planning to leave Rhode Island within the next three years to practice elsewhere cite Rhode Island’s high malpractice…

I was intrigued by an Op-Ed in today’s Providence Journal by Teresa Heinz (she dropped the Kerry!) and Jeffrey R. Lewis (“Extend Ohio drug plan across U.S“) that trumpeted the “success” of Ohio’s just-implemented BestRX plan. With a critical eye, one derived from a predisposition to mistrust our almost-First Lady, I searched for corroborating evidence…

As I noted at the time on Dust in the Light, the Providence Journal‘s editorial page recently made an astonishingly forward-looking suggestion: The problem of job quality is complex, involving trade, education and other issues. But we hope that political leaders will take an especially close look at the health-care factor. Our employment-based health-insurance system…