Senators to Push for Registry of Drug Makersâ Gifts to Doctors
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A Senate hearing about money and gifts that drug makers routinely provide to doctors did not go well for the drug industry Wednesday.
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WASHINGTON - The bill Congress is soon expected to pass giving regulators more authority over pharmaceutical companies is most significant to biotech drug makers and their would-be generic rivals because of what was left out.
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Representative Billy Tauzin will become president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the chief lobby for brand-name drug companies.
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U.S. senators vowed on Wednesday to move forward with legislation to legalize the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from certain countries, despite resistance from regulators and drugmakers.
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Some U.S. Senate Republicans voiced  reservations on Thursday about a bill designed to stop drug  makers from striking deals to restrict the introduction of  cheaper generic drugs.
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A U.S. senator plans to introduce a bill that seeks to increase funding for research and science education in an effort to kick start efforts to pass legislation to improve U.S. competitiveness.
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Doctors have been taking calls from anxious patients ever since a Senate hearing on Vioxx last week at which an FDA scientist expressed concerns about the safety of five other drugs on the market.
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Senate Democrats unveiled a spending blueprint yesterday that envisions a massive expansion of the nation's health-insurance program for children, as well as billions of additional dollars for other domestic priorities such as public education, veterans' health care and local police.
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The Food and Drug Administrationâs proposed rules would allow drug and device makers to provide doctors with medical journal articles about product uses that have not been approved by the F.D.A.
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Senators supporting a large spending increase for a popular children's health insurance program hope that a wide margin of bipartisan approval will persuade President Bush to change his mind about vetoing the measure.
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Drug makers are exploring the possibility of tying pharmaceutical prices to performance.
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With yet more already-marketed medicines raising the ire of consumer advocates and regulators alike, momentum is building for reform of the governmentâs drug approval and monitoring procedures.
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WASHINGTON -- Some influential members of Congress are renewing their pledge to help speed generic versions of the world's most expensive drugs to market.
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(InfoWorld) - Doctors would get $3 for every patient signed up to use an electronic health record under terms of a bill introduced Thursday by U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat. The Personalized Health Information Act would require that the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services create a personal health record incentive program to help speed U.S. adoption of e-health records. E-health records can cut health-care costs by consolidating patient information and eliminating medical errors, such as prescription interactions, proponents say. U.S. President George Bush has called on the U.S. government and private health-care providers to work together to provide e-health records to all residents by 2014. Using e-health records would allow patients to avoid filling out forms found in nearly every doctor's office, Kennedy said. The records would allow health-care providers to send messages to patients, such as reminders that a child is due for a vaccine. Some e-health records allow patients to send e-mail to their doctors, schedule appointments online, or view test results. But e-health records have been slow to catch on, partly because doctors haven't embraced them. Kennedy's bill would give U.S. doctors $3 for each patient converted to an e-health record over three years. A spokeswoman for Kennedy didn't immediately have an estimate of how much the program would cost. E-health records "are a critical piece of the puzzle as we move forward in an effort to improve the quality and cost efficiency of the health-care system in this country," Kennedy said. The bill would empower patients to be better informed and would also improve communication between them and their health-care providers, he said. Several companies and organizations, including Microsoft, e-health record vendor Allscripts, and the American Heart Association, endorsed the bill. Patients' ability to access personal health records "is a critical starting point to improved health care," Peter Neupert, Microsoft's corporate vice president for health strategy, said in a statement.
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A group of 10 senators &#151; five Republicans and five Democrats &#151; told President Bush on Tuesday that they have agreed on a blueprint for increasing health insurance coverage, and they would like to work with him on it.
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WASHINGTON -- The US Senate yesterday hammered out a long-awaited bill that paves the way for generic versions of the world's most expensive drugs, while providing a 12-year financial cushion for local biotechnology leaders who worry that such lower-priced drugs would hurt sales of their name-brand products.
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The discovery that antidepressants may increase suicidal tendencies in children  has prompted some lawmakers and physicians to ask if changes are needed to financial incentives given to drug makers for pediatric research.