"Health & Medical News"

Many of the country’s largest health plans have agreed on a set of standards to be used nationwide as the basis for physician pay-for-performance initiatives and tiered networks. Underlying the effort is insurers’ fears that states could develop 50 different sets of regulations to govern these programs — a concern sparked by last year’s crackdown by New York’s attorney general.

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Popularity: unranked [?]

An anti-psychotic drug already approved in the U.S. to treat adults and adolescents with schizophrenia may soon be available for youngsters age 10 to 17 years of age suffering from bipolar disorder.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given priority review status to the drug Abilify which is manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka Pharmaceutical.

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Here is another story on the growth of medical technology consumption and production in emerging regions. A few days ago we had a related post (Trends in Global Pharmaceutical Manufacturing). According to the McKinsey report, the rural health services sector will provide significant growth in the demand for pharmaceuticals.

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Popularity: 8% [?]

The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) says that while alcohol companies are spending less on radio ads, more ads for beer, wine and liquor are being broadcast during “youth-oriented” programs, the Associated Press reported Sept. 18.

A new CAMY report estimated that 36 percent of alcohol radio ads are placed on shows where per-capita youth audiences are higher than adult audiences.

Popularity: 6% [?]

A major obstacle in the treatment of infections and other diseases of the brain is the blood-brain barrier, which prevents systemically delivered therapeutic drugs from reaching the brain.

Grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, have now shown that a short protein (peptide) from the rabies virus can carry a strip of therapeutic material into the brain via intravenous administration. Once delivered to the nerve cells of the brain, the strip, called a small interfering RNA (siRNA), was shown to protect mice from infection caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV).

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Popularity: 5% [?]