White House Sides With Companies in Drug Discount Lawsuit
Music Triggers Release of Pleasure Chemical: Study
Illness Outbreak on Cruise Ship
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
White House Sides With Companies in Drug Discount Lawsuit
In an unexpected move, the Obama administration is supporting drug companies accused of overcharging public hospitals and clinics that look after large number of poor Americans.
The Supreme Court case involves a lawsuit brought by Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties in California against a number of pharmaceutical makers. The lawsuit alleges that hospitals and clinics in the counties didn’t receive obligatory discounts when they bought drugs from the companies, The New York Times reported.
Fearing a rash of lawsuits, the Justice Department officials told the Supreme Court that hospitals and clinics cannot sue drug makers to enforce their right to discounts or to be reimbursed by companies that overcharge.
“You can parse the legal issues, as the Justice Department has done. But the bottom line is that a lot of poor people and a lot of safety-net providers are not getting the discounts they are supposed to receive,” Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University, told The Times.
More than 15,000 hospitals and clinics across the U.S. participate in the discount program, which reduces prescription drug prices by 30 to 50 percent. These facilities spend more than $6 billion a year on drugs.
—–
Music Triggers Release of Pleasure Chemical: Study
Listening to music causes the brain to release dopamine, a chemical that makes people feel pleasure, says a new study.
The researchers at McGill University in Montreal said their finding helps explain why music is so popular across cultures, msnbc.com reported.
The study included eight people who regularly experienced chills when they heard particular parts of certain pieces of music. Brain scans revealed where and when their brains released dopamine as they listened to music.
Only instrumental music was used in the study, which shows that the dopamine response doesn’t depend on voices, said researcher Valorie Salimpoor. She added that further work is needed to find out how voices might contribute to the feeling of pleasure when listening to music, msnbc.com reported.
The study was published online in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Previous research has shown that dopamine helps us feel pleasure while eating and having sex.
Illness Outbreak on Cruise Ship
An outbreak of gastrointestinal illness that affected 150 of 2,336 passengers and three crew members occurred last week on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Radiance of the Seas.
The illness was marked by diarrhea and vomiting, USA Today reported.
After the five-night voyage ended in Tampa on Saturday, the Radiance of the Seas underwent a ship-wide cleaning before it departed on its next cruise.
Increased prevention efforts have led to a decline in the number of such outbreaks on cruise ships in recent years, USA Today reported.
In 2010, there were 14 outbreaks of illnesses on cruise ships operating out of U.S. ports, compared to 15 in 2009, 21 in 2007, and 34 in 2006, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Lilly, Boehringer collaborate on diabetes drugs
INDIANAPOLIS — Eli Lilly will pay Boehringer Ingelheim $387.4 million and collaborate with the German drugmaker to develop diabetes drugs with the U.S. pharmaceutical company facing the expiration of some of its key patents.
Lilly, based in Indianapolis, loses patent protection this year for its top-selling drug, the anti-psychotic Zyprexa, and faces the loss of some other key patents in the next few years. The drugmaker said Tuesday that the deal with Boehringer Ingelheim offers the potential of boosting near-term revenue.
Lilly could receive more than $1 billion in future payments depending on how well the collaboration performs and whether the drugs under development reach certain sales milestones. Boehringer Ingelheim will be eligible for future payments totaling about $807 million.
The collaboration includes two Lilly insulins expected to enter late-stage testing this year and a type 2 diabetes treatment from Boehringer Ingelheim that is being reviewed by regulators.
French sue drug company over deadly slimming pill
A group representing alleged victims of the drug Mediator has lodged over 100 complaints at a French court for unintentional manslaughter and injury. Now-banned Mediator was used as a slimming pill and has been linked to heart problems.
Over the past 30 years, Mediator was prescribed to several million French patients and is said to have caused the deaths of up to 2,000 people. Its widespread use has caused recent uproar as critics say French health organisations were warned about its dangers but did not ban the drug.
The president of the group Isomeride and Mediator victims’ association (Avim) has lodged 10 complaints for unintentional manslaughter and 106 complaints for unintentional injury.
The group has also warned that more were to come, which appears to indicate that they will be no out-of-court settlement between the victims and French company Servier, Mediator’s manufacturer.
“Hundreds more complaints are in the pipeline. We’re looking at some several thousand complaints in all,” the group’s lawyer Jean-Christophe Coubris says.
Prosecutors in Paris opened a preliminary inquiry in December and relatives of alleged victims are hoping that an investigating judge will be nominated soon.
The public outcry against Mediator has grown over accusations that French authorities did not react to warning that the drug was dangerous.
France’s daily Le Figaro published details of a letter written in 1998 to France’s health agency the Agence du medicament from social security doctors warning of Mediator’s health risks. France only banned Mediator in 2009, long after Italy and Spain.
Servier denies accusations Mediator caused up to 2,000 deaths, and says only three people died after taking the medication.
On Sunday, however, Servier said it was ready to “face up to its responsibilities if need be”.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.