Several states are planning to sue the federal government over stricter rules on family income for children to qualify for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The planned suit, announced yesterday, seems as much a political move as a legal one. It’s led mainly by Democratic governors and comes as the Bush administration and Congress [...]
Two more senior executives will be leaving WellPoint in the next year, as the shuffling of the top brass continues at the health insurer.Angela Braly (pictured) took over as CEO earlier this year, just as the company’s well-regarded CFO David Colby was forced out and his apparently complicated romantic life landed him in court. Braly’s [...]
A generic antibiotic often used to treat acne may find a new life as a treatment for strokes.Patients who received the drug, minocycline, within a day of having a stroke had less risk of long-term mental and physical impairments than similar patients who didn’t receive the drug, says a study published in Neurology. Minocyline was [...]
The spectacular failure of one experimental drug to raise good cholesterol hasn’t spelled doom for the whole class–yet. Just ask Roche, which is nursing a good-cholesterol booster code-named R1658 through clinical tests. Mid-stage results could be ready later this year.Roche will decide then whether to move the medicine into late-stage trials, a company exec said [...]
The Health Blog admits to having been a bit befuddled when Wyeth announced last week that Bernard Poussot would replace Robert Essner, who turns 60 this month, as CEO on Jan. 1. The issue wasnÂ’t anything about Poussot. It was the timing. Most everybody we talked to outside Wyeth expected Essner (pictured) to stick around [...]
People who are more conscientious are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s, according to a study published today in the Archives of General Psychiatry.A high conscientiousness score — which the authors describe as reflecting a “tendency to control impulses and be goal directed” — was associated with an 89% reduction in the risk of disease compared [...]
Walgreens stock was down more than 14% at midday, after the company announced disappointing third-quarter earnings. Part of the problem was weaker margins on generic drugs — an issue that may also have bedeviled other drug retailers and middlemen during the quarter.Despite higher revenues, Walgreen’s net income for the quarter was down 3.8% from last [...]
The Orphan Drug Act has helped bring drugs to patients afflicted with diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in this country. And while the number of drugs treating those diseases has grown to more than 300, the price of progress is often stunningly high. Sometimes the price is so high that it threatens patients’ [...]
The guy who helped build the giant hospital chain HCA then got forced out as the company went under the feds’ microscope for fraud is on the comeback trail with a new health venture: retail clinics. The setting, not surprisingly, is Florida, where Richard Scott, late of HCA and now with an eponymous investment [...]
It’s time to play the pharma M&A game “Who gets bought next?” This morning’s episode is brought to us by the Financial Times, which short-lists a few bite-size companies that could patch up a big suitor’s product portfolio. The contestants include:Sepracor. The company sold $143 million of its flagship product, the sleeping pill Lunesta, in [...]
