Sebelius warns against healthcare reform repeal. Health & Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Dept. of Labor secretary Hilda Solis, and Treasury secretary Tim Geithner sent a letter to members of Congress to provide an update on implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The government executives also took time to tout the law’s benefits and implore the new G.O.P.-dominated legislature not to repeal it. "If the Affordable Care Act were repealed as some have proposed, the individuals we have heard from plus the millions of families, seniors, other individuals, and small businesses already helped would lose this support and these protections," the federal leaders wrote.
Chimps’ future as lab test animals in doubt, thanks to Senators. Thanks to U.S. Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, 186 government-owned chimpanzees won’t be headed back to a biomedical research lab. The National Institutes of Health determined that the chimpanzees – currently located at the Alamogordo Primate Facility on the Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, N.M., will remain there pending an Institute of Medicine analysis to reassess the scientific need for the chimps’ continued use.
Dick Cheney may need a heart transplant, but he could be too old. “Can stem cells help Dick Cheney?” Fox News asks.
A better way to fund medical devices? Call it “early in early out.” Mach Ventures’ approach to investing in medical devices: sell after the company proves the device can work or after FDA approval. “No infrastructure, no management, and no duplication that the acquirer needs to get rid of. It’s more honest’and a lot more fun,” writes John Lonergan, Mach’s managing member. Lonergan says the current venture capital approach fails medical devices (and biotech, for that matter).
Pharma and healthcare cut fewer jobs last year. Pharmaceutical and healthcare industries combined announced almost 24 percent fewer job cuts this year than last, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Healthcare smartphone applications. Revenues from smartphone medical apps used by healthcare professionals grew to an estimated $84.1 million in 2010.
Report: Autism-vaccine link is a fraud. A 1998 study that set off a major health scare by linking autism to a vaccine was “an elaborate fraud,” the British Medical Journal said today, reports AFP.
Victories for death panelists. End-of-life planning, inserted into Medicare reimbursement regulations, will now be removed.
Health CEOs special healthcare benefit. Nine of 12 CEOs of major healthcare trade groups were paid $1 million in 2009. “There is no one formula [for] association compensation,” said Nels Olson, managing director of at head hunting firm Korn/Ferry. “But one that is relevant here is advocacy, given the health care debate in Washington.” Meanwhile, only one in 10 top health lobbyists broke $1 million.
Venture capital zombies… include eight healthcare investment funds: HIG Ventures, HealthCare Ventures, Hopewell Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners, MedVenture Associates, Mission Ventures, Prospect Ventures and Sanderling Venture Partners.
Accenture: The healthcare consultant. Watch Accenture’s Group Chief Executive Stephen Roedler discuss the company’s plans to be known as a healthcare company.
Dealflow and more. Dry eye drugmaker Eyegate Pharmaceuticals added $5.9 to a round now totaling $28.5 million; DBV Technologies, which is making a peanut allergy patch, raised $25.5 million; osteoporosis medical device company Graftys raised $5.3 million for a U.S. expansion; and obesity devicemaker Satiety has raised $68 million but wants to sell.
Material from MedCity News was used in this report.
