By Shirley S. Wang
There’s lot of action these days aimed at curbing the abuse of prescription drugs. The FDA is working on a plan to make it harder for people to get access to unauthorized prescription painkillers, pain specialists have come out with guidelines to help doctors manage pain-drug-abusing patients and drug companies have been developing abuse-resistant drugs.
Today, the National Institute on Drug Abuse jumped … Continue Reading
By Jonathan D. Rockoff
Pfizer’s huge R&D shop is even bigger now that the company has swallowed Wyeth. To get a sense of the changes that could be in store, the Health Blog spoke today with the company’s two top R&D execs — Martin Mackay, a Pfizer veteran who will lead small-molecule work, and Mikael Dolsten, a former Wyeth executive who will oversee vaccines and biotech drugs.
Following a popular trend in the … Continue Reading
By Jacob Goldstein
The Senate just killed that bill that would have blocked Medicare pay cuts to doctors. All of the Republicans opposed the bill, along with a handful of Dems. But that doesn’t mean the looming 21% pay cut is going to take effect next year.
Instead, Congress will likely do what it almost always does: Pass another short-term fix that blocks the pay cuts for the immediate future but leaves in place plans … Continue Reading
By Jacob Goldstein
There were some heated words on the Senate floor today as Congress debated what to do about planned Medicare pay cuts for doctors. We’ll get to the rhetoric in a minute, but first a bit of the back story.
Under current law, Medicare payment rates for doctors will fall by 21% next year. Nobody seems to want to let the cuts take effect, and Congress has repeatedly blocked similar pay cuts in recent years. … Continue Reading
By Jacob Goldstein
It’s fine if parents want their sons to get Gardasil, Merck’s vaccine against HPV. But it shouldn’t be added to the list of routine vaccinations recommended for all boys, a CDC advisory panel said today.
Gardasil is on the routine list for girls, because it protects against some of the strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer. For boys and young men, though, the vaccine has only been approved … Continue Reading