RxBlog (tm) .net / Health + Drug Blog

Stark warning about rising Medicare costs

Medicare trustees issued the first ever statutory warning over the long-term finances of the government-backed health programme for senior citizens on Monday.

The warning, required by law, came as new projections showed the share of Medicare costs paid out of general taxation would exceed 45 per cent by 2013. More realistic assumptions suggest this threshold could be breached as early as 2010.

“Today is a historic occasion and not a happy one,” Hank Paulson, the Treasury secretary, said. He said he was frustrated at the lack of response to his efforts to generate a bipartisan initiative to tackle the problem of financing Medicare and the other main entitlement programmes, Medicaid and Social Security.

“There was a time when I was a bit more optimistic than I was today,” he said. “I am getting a little bit tired of playing solitaire.”

[ PDF ] 2007 Medicare Trustees Report

» HHS Press Release on the 2007 Medicare Trustees Report
» Financial Times

AstraZeneca to Buy MedImmune for $15.6 Billion

British pharma AstraZeneca plc has announced it will purchase MedImmune Inc. for $15.6 billion. AstraZeneca will pay $58 per share in cash, representing a premium of approximately 53% to MedImmune's share price on April 11, the day before news broke that the U.S. biotech company was for sale. The deal is expected to close in June.

Scientists map rhesus monkeys genome

Scientists have unraveled the DNA of another of our primate relatives, this time a monkey named the rhesus macaque — and the work has far more immediate impact than just to study evolution. These fuzzy animals are key to testing the safety of many medicines, and understanding such diseases as AIDS, and the new research will help scientists finally be sure when they're a good stand-in for humans. Having a third primate will allow scientists to compare the three genomes, with an added emphasis on singling out the genes possessed by humans alone. The end goal is to reconstruct the history of every single one of the approximately 20,000 genes, to determine when they first appeared in history, and in what species. All of this requires an extraordinary amount of information.

"This brings us much closer to understanding what makes us human," said Richard Gibbs, the project leader and director of Baylor's Human Genome Sequencing Center.

» Houston Chronicle

Why gene patents are bad / Michael Crichton op-ed

He begins with 'You, or someone you love, may die because of a gene patent that should never have been granted in the first place. Sound far-fetched? Unfortunately, it's only too real.' From there, he moves on to use logic, statistics, and his way with words to make his point. Arguing against the high costs of gene therapies thanks to related patents, he eventually offers hope that one day legislation will de-incentivize the hoarding of scientific knowledge. As he points out: 'When SARS was spreading across the globe, medical researchers hesitated to study it — because of patent concerns. There is no clearer indication that gene patents block innovation, inhibit research and put us all at risk.

» New York Times

Patentless cancer drug discovered / dichloroacetate (DCA)

Researchers working at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada have discovered that an existing drug called dichloroacetate (DCA) is effective in killing cancer cells, while leaving the host's healthy cells unharmed. DCA has already been used for years to treat metabolic disorders, and is known to be fairly safe. Sounds like great news, is it too good to be true? Why is the mainstream news media failing to report on this potential breakthrough? The University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board have set up a site with more info, where you can also donate to support future clinical trials.

» depmed.ualberta.ca
» new scientist

DNA tests theory of roman village in china

Many of the inhabitants of a lonely village in north western China seems to have distinctive western features. An old theory from the 50s suggests that a Roman legion lost in what is now Iran in the year 53BC lost their commanding officer. They traveled east, so the legend goes, working as mercenaries until they were caught by the Chinese 17 years later. The Chinese described them as using a 'fish-scale formation', which could be a reference to the well-known Roman phalanx technique called the 'tortoise'. The remainder of the legion, it is suggested, may have intermarried with the villagers in Liqian. Scientists are now trying to verify the fascinating theory by testing the DNA of the inhabitants of the Chinese village.

» Sydney Morning Herald