Uninsured RX

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) announced that it will join with other pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to research genetic markers that may help predict who is at risk for serious drug related adverse events."Improved technology makes it more possible for us to identify and even predict how patients may react to a particular medicine," said Dan Burns, senior vice president for pharmacogenetics. [click link for full article]

Making technology easier to use for older people is the focus of a Queensland University of Technology research team which has attracted $280,000 in funding in the latest round of the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects scheme.The study, led by QUT design researcher Dr Thea Blackler, is one of 24 projects worth more than $7.2 million awarded to QUT.The announcement tops off a successful week for QUT research, with the university awarded $3. [click link for full article]

Trophos SA, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the discovery and development of drugs for neurological disorders, announced that the company has begun enrolling Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) patients in a Phase Ib clinical trial of its lead product, TRO19622. [click link for full article]

AspenBio Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: APPY) an emerging bio pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of novel drugs and diagnostics for animals and humans, announced strong results from the latest pre FDA multi-hospital study using its AppyScore(TM) human appendicitis screen / triage blood test. [click link for full article]

Small Bone Innovations, Inc. (SBi), a single-source provider of products, technology and education for the small bone and joint orthopedic market sector, announced the launch of the rHead(TM) Lateral Radial Head Implant System. To further augment its Elbow Management System, the company also launched the rHead(TM) Plating System for internal fixation of proximal radius fractures. [click link for full article]

Last night the U.S. Senate passed S.2085, the Patient and Pharmacy Protection Act of 2007, which establishes a six-month delay for the tamper resistant pad guidelines for Medicaid prescription drugs scheduled to be implemented starting October 1. [click link for full article]

Yondelis?, the new anticancer drug of marine origin developed by the biopharmaceutical company PharmaMar is profiling as a beneficial and well tolerated therapeutic option for patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma, following failure of conventional treatment. [click link for full article]

The House on Tuesday voted 265-159 to approve compromise legislation that would reauthorize SCHIP and expand enrollment from 6.6 million children to about 10 million children, USA Today reports (Wolf, USA Today, 9/26). [click link for full article]

Summaries of several recent editorials and opinion pieces that examine the debate over legislation to reauthorize and expand SCHIP, as well as related issues, appear below. Editorials [click link for full article]

"Eligible But Not Enrolled: How SCHIP Reauthorization Can Help," Urban Institute: The brief discusses nontraditional strategies to increase enrollment of low-income children in SCHIP. The paper examines innovative enrollment strategies implemented by Medicare and how those strategies could be adapted to SCHIP and Medicaid coverage for children. [click link for full article]