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Health care jobs top future employment opportunity list

Health care jobs, especially in nursing, dominate the country's employment future in the next decade. NPR reports that "[m]ore than 3 million jobs in the health care industry will be created this decade, ranging from highly paid neurosurgeons to home health aids making barely above minimum wage.

7 Jan 2010

Senate: Democratic retirements raise questions about political support for health reform

The retirement announcements from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) [are] unlikely have a direct impact on the final push for health care legislation, Democratic and health care insiders said Wednesday.

7 Jan 2010

Meridian Health and Cypak collaborate to improve patient care and clinical outcomes

Meridian Health and Cypak today announced a partnership to jointly develop new technology-based products and services aimed at improved patient care and clinical outcomes.

7 Jan 2010

SpectraCell Laboratories agrees to become Aetna's contracted in-network provider

SpectraCell Laboratories announced today that it has agreed with Aetna Health, one of the nation's largest health insurers, to become a contracted in-network provider. The contract provides coverage by Aetna of SpectraCell's micronutrient testing, as well as other advanced tests offered by the company.

7 Jan 2010

Texas Mutual Insurance offers tips to prevent H1N1 flu

Flu season peaks in January and February. For adults, the workplace is the most common place to catch the flu.

7 Jan 2010

Watson Laboratories files ANDA to seek FDA's approval to market Nuvigil

Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading global specialty pharmaceutical company, today confirmed that its subsidiary, Watson Laboratories, Inc., a Nevada Corporation, filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking approval to market its 50 mg, 100 mg, 150mg, 200 mg, and 250mg strength armodafinil tablets prior to the expiration of patents owned by Cephalon France.

7 Jan 2010

Canada supports Mexico's pandemic response efforts

The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, on behalf of the Government of Canada, has announced it will be providing five million doses of H1N1 flu vaccine to Mexico to help bridge that country's immediate pandemic vaccine requirements. This is not a donation. Mexico will replenish Canada's H1N1 vaccine supply by March 31, 2010.

7 Jan 2010

Study explains how H. pylori infection causes stomach cancer

Researchers report that Helicobacter pylori, the only bacterium known to survive in the harsh environment of the human stomach, directly activates an enzyme in host cells that has been associated with several types of cancer, including gastric cancer.

7 Jan 2010

Up to final hours, lobbyists influence health overhaul

Language in both the House and Senate bills would reward hospitals for efficiency in their Medicare spending, a dramatic change in the formula for parceling out the public dollars, which can account for as much as half of a hospital's budget. That could prove to be a windfall for some hospitals but a significant loss of funding for others, mostly those in big cities and the South.

7 Jan 2010

MabCure signs clinical research agreement to diagnose ovarian cancer

MabCure, N.V. (“MabCure”) a wholly-owned subsidiary of MabCure Inc., a biotech company that has developed a series of highly specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to combat various types of cancers, has signed a clinical research agreement with the Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand.

7 Jan 2010

Reuters examines TB in China

Reuters examines efforts to control tuberculosis in China, which has the "world's second largest tuberculosis burden after India." The news service writes, "China has 4.5 million TB cases currently; and each year 1.4 million people fall ill with the disease. TB killed 160,000 people in China in 2008, according to the World Health Organization."

7 Jan 2010

New tools show potential for treating brain disorders

Neuroscientists at MIT have developed a powerful new class of tools to reversibly shut down brain activity using different colors of light.

7 Jan 2010

LIBERTY Dental Plan receives Certificate of Authority from Office of Insurance Regulation in Florida

LIBERTY Dental Plan of Florida today received a Certificate of Authority from the Office of Insurance Regulation in Florida, recognizing the company as a Prepaid Limited Health Service Organization authorized to do business in the Sunshine State.

7 Jan 2010

DBA Analytical to host a 2-day training course on dietary supplements

DBA Analytical, an NSF International company, which provides a full range of compliance services for FDA regulated industries, will host a 2-day training course on 21 CFR 111, the Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs) in Manufacturing, Packaging, Labeling, or Holding Operations for Dietary Supplements.

6 Jan 2010

Odyssey HealthCare acquires Westchester

Odyssey HealthCare, Inc., one of the largest providers of hospice care in the United States, today announced that it has acquired Westchester, Illinois-based Generations Healthcare, expanding the Company’s presence in the Chicago metropolitan area.

6 Jan 2010

Dialysis extension at Atlanta hospital eases crisis for illegal immigrants

The New York Times: "In early October, when Grady, Atlanta's public hospital, closed its outpatient dialysis unit for budgetary reasons, it agreed to pay for three months of dialysis at private clinics for about 50 dislocated patients.

6 Jan 2010

Enzon Pharmaceuticals treats first patient in Phase 2 studies of PEG-SN38

Enzon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the first patient has been treated in the Phase 2 studies of PEG-SN38 for metastatic breast cancer. PEG-SN38 or EZN-2208 is Enzon’s PEGylated form of SN38, the active metabolite of the cancer drug Camptosar® (irinotecan HCl injection).

6 Jan 2010

Dana-Farber researcher honored for scientific advancement

Kai W. Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD, a researcher at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has been named a Fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

6 Jan 2010

House Democrats develop wish list for final reform package, return to the White House

Heading into a key White House meeting this afternoon, House leaders are eyeing several items that they would like in a final health care reform deal with the Senate, but it's not clear whether their wish list will have much of an impact in the face of threats from conservative Senators to withdraw their support for the bill.

6 Jan 2010

Eisai acquires AkaRx for approximately $255 million

Eisai Inc. (Headquarters: Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, Chairman and CEO: Hajime Shimizu, "Eisai") today announces the successful completion of its acquisition of the biopharmaceutical company, AkaRx, Inc. (Headquarters: Bridgewater, New Jersey, CEO: Robert E. Desjardins), for approximately $255 million.

6 Jan 2010