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Health Care PRESS ROOM |
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U.S. unprepared for bird flu
Submitted by Sally C. Pipes on 10.30.2005
The United States is not prepared for the possibility of an avian flu pandemic. We could have been, we should have been, but we're not.
The Lion and the Lambs Laying Down Together
Submitted by Benjamin Zycher on 10.27.2005
Wal-Mart does it. Big pharmacy chains do it. Insurance companies and HMOs do it. And for all I know, the birds and the bees do it too.
Healthy profits have healing powers
Submitted by Benjamin Zycher on 10.25.2005
AH, BARN DOORS being closed after the horses are roaming the countryside. Consider the recent White House meeting among President Bush, top administration officials and the major vaccine producers. The purpose was to speed preparations for a possible -- but unlikely -- flu pandemic caused by a potential breakout of avian flu among human populations.
Beware of side effects if eyeing VA drug plan
Submitted by Sally C. Pipes on 10.24.2005
The new Medicare Part D drug benefit will cost seniors less in premiums than anyone expected, ensure access to virtually any FDA-approved medicine , and cut total drug spending for those with moderate or high prescription costs by about two-thirds.
Tough tasks for new FDA chief
Submitted by Peter Pitts on 10.20.2005
After his recently confirmed Food and Drug Administration commissioner suddenly resigned, President Bush wisely tapped Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach to fill the slot. Dr. von Eschenbach knows how to think big. As director of the National Cancer Institute since 2002, he challenged himself, his colleagues, and the medical world to transform cancer into a chronic, rather than a lethal, disease by 2015.
Red Tape Choking Us
Submitted by Sally C. Pipes on 10.17.2005
"We are not prepared for a pandemic,” Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said earlier this month. We do, however, face a significant risk of being hit by one. A new strain of the avian flu, known as H5N1, has killed at least 60 people in Asia since 2003. So far, humans cannot pass it to one another — virtually everyone infected caught the virus from a diseased bird.
So Much For American Sovereignty
Submitted by Benjamin Zycher on 10.7.2005
The greater the power to redistribute wealth wielded by government, the stronger the private-sector incentive to circumvent it, and so ever-expanding is the power that government must grasp. Nowhere is that eternal truth clearer than in the ongoing debate over the importation of pharmaceuticals subject to price controls overseas. Such legalized importation would be one way for those favoring such price controls -- a blatant wealth transfer from the future to the present -- to have that cake without actually having to vote for it, and thus having to bear responsibility for the ensuing adverse effects on current and future human suffering.
War on drug prices
Submitted by John R. Graham on 10.2.2005
Propositions 78 and 79, on the Nov. 8 ballot, present competing visions for reducing prescription drug prices in our state. Californians should carefully consider which measure might actually achieve that goal.
FDA Approves New Vaccine in Time for Flu Season
Submitted by Susan Konig on 10.1.2005
In a major step toward increasing the supply of flu vaccine in the United States, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced August 31 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the firm's influenza vaccine, Fluarix, for distribution in time for the 2005-2006 influenza season.
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