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State
Lawmakers To File Supreme Court Brief Upholding Health Law
More than 480 state legislators,
representing a least one district from every U.S. state, will file
a brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold President Obama's healthcare
law. "The idea that the federal government does not have the power
to address a national problem such as the healthcare crisis has
no basis in the Constitution's text and history," the brief states.
The
Hill
WVA
Pharmacy School Plans To Open Satellite At Midway College
West Virginia's University
of Charleston plans to open a branch of its pharmacy school at Midway
College's Paintsville, KY campus. The new school, which will accommodate
50 students and begin classes in 2013, is now recruiting faculty
and students. Charleston
Daily Mail
Delhaize
America To Close 126 Stores, Retire Bloom Banner
Delhaize America will
close 113 underperforming Food Lion stores, primarily in markets
in which the company has the least store density; retire the Bloom
banner; convert 64 Bloom and Bottom Dollar Food stores in Maryland,
North Carolina and Virginia to Food Lion stores; close seven underperforming
Bloom stores and six underperforming Bottom Dollar Food stores in
overlapping Food Lion markets; convert one Food Lion store in Florida
to a Harveys store; discontinue operations of its distribution center
located in Clinton, TN, and accelerate the roll out of the Food
Lion brand strategy in an additional 600 to 700 stores. All affected
stores will close within 30 days. Delhaize
America Press Release
Weis
Markets Freezes Prices Of 1,700 Items
Weis Markets, Inc. lowered
the prices on 1,700 items and will freeze the prices of these products
for 90 days through Apr. 2. It is the company's eighth 90-day Price
Freeze since 2009. Grocery, frozen, dairy, meat, health, beauty
care and general merchandise items are among the 1,700 products.
Weis
Markets Press Release
Wal-Mart
Plans Two Stores In Bellevue, WA
Wal-Mart Stores plans
to open a 64-000-sq. ft. grocery this year and a 76,000-sq. ft.
store next year in Bellevue, WA. The larger store is scheduled to
open in the first half of 2013, and will offer dry groceries and
frozen foods, but primarily general merchandise. The smaller Neighborhood
Markets store will offer groceries, a pharmacy, health and beauty
products and a small inventory of discount goods. The
Seattle Times (Free Registration Required)
Amazon
Wins Approvals To Build Fulfillment Center In Delaware
Amazon.com won approvals
to build a one million-sq. ft. fulfillment center in Middletown,
DE. The
Philadelphia Inquirer (Free Registration Required)
Active
Health Foods Launches Product For Dialysis Patients
Active Health Foods,
Inc. launched The Double Chocolate Chip Bar for dialysis patients.
Active
Health Foods Press Release
General
Mills Reformulates Cereals, Emphasizes Whole Grains
General Mills reformulated
more than 50 products across its portfolio of Big G cereals, with
the products displaying a white check that indicates the predominance
of whole grain over any other single ingredient. The reformulations
include Honey Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Total, Cinnamon Toast
Crunch and Cheerios. General
Mills Press Release
Meaningful
Use "Will Soar" This Year, Predicts Dr. Mostashari
The National Coordinator
for Health Information Technology Farzad Mostashari asserted that
"in 2012, meaningful use will soar," and "will continue
to be the cornerstone of our activities," at the Jan. 10 meeting
of the Health IT Policy Committee. While ensuring that every provider
can be successful at meaningful use is a challenge, Dr. Mostashari
predicted that interoperability and exchange would be the "second
and more complex challenge" following meaningful use in 2012.
Healthcare
IT News
Report
Issues "Wake-Up Call" For Pharmaceutical Industry
The global pharmaceutical
industry is facing a world in which profit margins will be substantially
lower than they are today, and it must develop a bolder, more radical
approach if it is to weather the difficult times ahead, according
to a McKinsey report. McKinsey
Report (Free Registration Required)
AstraZeneca,
IMS Health To Evaluate Drug Impacts
AstraZeneca signed a
three-year deal with IMS Health to use anonymized, real-world data
from European electronic patient records to gain a better picture
of how its medicines perform once they reach market. The main focus
of the collaboration, which will study economic and treatment pattern
data as well as clinical outcomes, will be on chronic diseases.
AstraZeneca
Press Release
Teva
Seeking Deals In Asia To Bolster Sales Growth: CFO
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Ltd. is seeking acquisitions in Asia to bolster sales in the region
and expand its product lines, two company executives stated, and
Brazil is also considered a potential major market by Teva. While
generic medicines remain the key focus at the firm, it is likely
that the company will generate more deals involving companies with
experimental medicines once new CEO Jeremy Levin transitions to
the role in May. The
Washington Post (Free Registration Required)
Statins
Cost Four Times More In U.S. Than UK: Study
The price for statins
used to lower cholesterol is more than 400% higher in the U.S. than
in the UK, according to a study in Pharmacotherapy. The results
are based on the MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database
in the U.S. and the General Practice Research Database in the UK
for the year 2005. By combining the annual cost for each statin
with the number of patients, the estimated cost for U.S. patients
with private insurance was $69.5 million compared to $15.7 million
for patients in the UK. Drug
Topics
CDC:
Life Expectancy Rises; Heart Disease, Cancer Deaths Decline
Life expectancy in the
U.S. climbed to a new high of 78.7 years in 2010 as fewer people
died from heart disease and cancer, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Homicide is no longer among
the 15 leading causes of death, replaced by pneumonitis, an inflammation
of the lungs caused by airborne irritants, chemotherapy or radiation,
the CDC reported. San
Francisco Chronicle (Free Registration Required), Report
Insurers
Offer Health Club Memberships To Lure Healthy Patients
Health insurers including
UnitedHealth Group and Humana are using health club memberships
as an inducement to attract healthier and less costly older persons
to their Medicare Advantage programs, according to a report in The
New England Journal of Medicine. Bloomberg.com,
NEJM
Report
Cigna,
Weill Cornell Launch Accountable Care Initiative
Cigna and Weill Cornell
Physician Organization launched New York's first collaborative accountable
care initiative, designed to improve care coordination and lower
total medical costs. Under the program, patients covered by Cigna
health plans will have their care overseen by 71 Weiss Cornell primary
care doctors. Cigna
Press Release
Soda
Tax Could Prevent 26,000 Premature Deaths, Study Finds
A penny-per-ounce soda
tax could reduce consumption by 15%, raise $13 billion a year and
save $17 billion in medical costs, according to a study published
in the journal Health Affairs. The research was compiled
by Columbia University, UC San Francisco and Virginia Tech. The
Los Angeles Times (Free Registration Required), Study
Abstract
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"Education
is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
- W.B. Yeats
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