These two sentences from a Feb. 9 New York Times article on the peanut salmonella crisis stuck out to me: “Interviews and government records show that state and federal inspectors do not require the peanut industry to inform the public—or even the government—of salmonella contamination in its plants. And industry giants like Kellogg used processed peanuts in a variety of products but relied on the factory [Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, GA] to perform safety testing and divulge any problems.” Read more »

Regardless of where one may stand in the debate over solving rising healthcare costs, few would argue that the application of new information technology tools will have to play a major role. The link between new technology and reducing the cost of clinical trials is growing stronger thanks to a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The group conducted a study showing how implementing electronic medical records (EMR) and bioinformatics may be used to test drug efficacy. Read more »

Many state legislatures are looking for ways to keep their healthcare costs down. Given our difficult economy, attempts at fiscal prudence do not come as a surprise. What’s heartening is that many states’ bills draw a link between healthcare expenses and doctor–patient confidentiality. Read more »

The mood at the 2009 installment of InformEX, the exhibition of custom and batch manufacturers, which was held in San Francisco last week, had a decidedly subdued tone. The culprit: the uncertainty of the economy and its implications on spending and financing, particularly for small- to medium-sized pharmaceutical companies. Read more »

As my colleague recently mentioned, new doesn’t always mean better. That became true last week for anyone waiting for a new offer from Roche to acquire Genentech. Roche announced its new plan to buy the company last Friday: Roche will approach Genentech’s shareholders directly with an offer of $86.50 per share or $42 billion. Read more »

In a society full of “what’s new must be better” attitudes, few “failed” technologies get a second chance. When a drug company, for example, discontinues work on a compound because it has failed its intended therapeutic target, the research rarely gets any attention. Once in a while, in science especially, revisiting these failed compounds turns out to be rewarding after all. Such was the experience of a team of Johns Hopkins medical scientists and an antibiotic formulated more than 100 years ago. Read more »

Washington, DC (Feb. 3)—Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle withdrew his name from consideration for US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Read more »