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Archived News Headlines
We have been archiving all OBR daily news stories since March 2008. Use the box below to search our archives for specific articles and content.
Please note: we do not "host" news articles on our website. When a media source removes an article from their website the link becomes inactive, and you will only be able to see the date, title, first sentence and media source that published the article.
ASCO Emphasizes Quality Improvement, Stability in House SGR Comments
(ASCO in Action) June 18, 2013 - Responding to a request from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, ASCO recently submitted recommendations on draft legislation that would repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula.
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ASCO Urges Administration to Provide Clear ACA Guidance on Protecting Patient Access to Clinical Trials
(ASCO) June 19, 2013 - The American Society of Clinical Oncology has joined more than 50 other organizations in urging the Administration to issue regulations or guidance before January 2014 to ensure health plans implement an important provision of the Affordable Care Act that would remove a critical obstacle to patients interested in participating in research.
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Editorial: Proper Scrutiny for Drug Settlements
(New York Times) June 18, 2013 - The Federal Trade Commission says pay-for-delay practices cost Americans billions annually in higher drug prices. The Supreme Court has given the government the power to ensure more market competition.
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Astra, Bristol Diabetes Drug Disappoints in Key Test
(Reuters) June 19, 2013 - AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb's diabetes drug Onglyza failed to reduce heart risks in a large clinical study, disappointing investors who had thought it might demonstrate an edge over rivals.
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A.M.A. Recognizes Obesity as a Disease
(New York Times) June 18, 2013 - The American Medical Association has officially recognized obesity as a disease, a move that could induce physicians to pay more attention to the condition and spur more insurers to pay for treatments.
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Brill: Health Law Won’t Bring Prices Down For Patients
(Washington Post/Kaiser Health News) June 18, 2013 - At a Capitol Hill hearing Tuesday, journalist Steven Brill, who examined the issue of the high cost of health care in a much quoted March 2013 Time magazine article, told Senate Finance Committee members that President Barack Obama’s health care law will do very little to lower prices for consumers.
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Study: Wiser Medication Use Could Cut Health Costs
(Boston.com/Associated Press) June 19, 2013 - If doctors and patients used prescription drugs more wisely, they could save the U.S. health care system at least $213 billion a year, by reducing medication overuse, underuse and other flaws in care that cause complications and longer, more-expensive treatments, researchers conclude.
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Op-Ed: Our Genes, Their Secrets
(New York Times) June 18, 2013 - THE Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling last Thursday, barring patents on human genes, was a wise and balanced decision that clears away a major barrier to innovation in the areas of biotechnology, drug development and medical diagnostics.
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Keeping the Promise of Cancer Care for the Whole Patient
(Cancer Support Community) June 19, 2013 - The Cancer Support Community (CSC), an international nonprofit organization, will celebrate the promise of cancer care for the whole patient with the launch today of the Cancer Policy Institute at the Cancer Support Community.
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Physician Resource Management Announces Douglas Blayney, M.D. as Senior Medical Advisor for the Organization
(PRM) June 11, 2013 - Physician Resource Management, Inc. (PRM) welcomes the addition of one of the nation’s leading oncologists, Douglas Blayney, M.D., to their management service organization.
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UPMC’S ‘Big Data’ Technology Shows Promise in Breast Cancer Research
(UPMC) June 19, 2013 – Only eight months into its $100 million, five-year enterprise analytics effort, UPMC and its research partners at the University of Pittsburgh are starting to see the potential of this “big data” technology for accelerating scientific discoveries and the promise of personalized medicine.
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GW Cancer Institute Publishes Overview on Value of Patient Navigation for Community Cancer Centers
(George Washington University) June 18, 2013 – A recently published paper by the George Washington University Cancer Institute (GWCI) addresses the value of patient navigation programs for community cancer centers.
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Saladax Biomedical Announces U.S. Launch of MyCare™ Portfolio of Chemotherapy Exposure Optimization Tests
(Philadelphia Business Journal) June 19, 2013 - Saladax Biomedical, Inc., a privately held company developing novel diagnostic tests that help physicians to optimize a patient's exposure to chemotherapy, today announced the U.S. launch of the MyCare™ portfolio of exposure optimization tests.
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Curie-Cancer and Sanofi Cooperate in Research on Ovarian Cancer
(Sanofi) June 19, 2013 - Sanofi and the Curie Institute, through its Curie-Cancer partnership under the Institut Carnot label, announce today the establishment of a three-year research collaboration to identify new therapeutic targets for the development of treatments for ovarian cancer.
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Clovis Oncology Closes $275M Offering Following Two Pivotal Weeks
(Xconomy Boulder/Denver) June 18, 2013 - Clovis Oncology’s big two weeks came to an end Monday with the closing of a secondary public offering of $275 million for the Boulder, CO.-based biopharmaceuticals company’s $275 million public offering.
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Takeda and Seattle Genetics Highlight Post-Hoc Analysis Examining Progression-free Survival with ADCETRIS® (brentuximab vedotin) Versus Prior Therapy at the International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma
(Yahoo! Finance) June 19, 2013 - Analysis showed more than 60 percent of patients achieved longer progression-free survival following treatment with ADCETRIS compared to prior therapy.
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Pushing Cancer Over The Edge
(Chemical & Engineering News/ACS) June 17, 2013 - After many disappointing studies, PARP inhibitors are finally showing promise as killers of cells already damaged by mutations.
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New Paper Offers Insights into How Cancer Cells Avoid Cell Death
(University of Notre Dame) June 18, 2013 - A new study by a team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame provides an important new insight into how cancer cells are able to avoid the cell death process. The findings may reveal a novel chemotherapeutic approach to prevent the spread of cancers.
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Fat Cells in Breast May Connect Social Stress to Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
(University of Chicago Medicine) June 18, 2013 - Local chemical signals released by fat cells in the mammary gland appear to provide a crucial link between exposure to unrelenting social stressors early in life, and the subsequent development of breast cancer, according to University of Chicago researchers
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Scientists Catch EGFR Passing a Crucial Message to Cancer-Promoting Protein
(MD Anderson) June 18, 2013 - Researchers have discovered and mapped the signaling network between two previously unconnected proteins, exposing a link that, if broken, could cut off cancer cell growth at its starting point.
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Aspirin May Fight Cancer by Slowing DNA Damage
(UCSF) June 18, 2013 - Aspirin is known to lower risk for some cancers, and a new study led by a UC San Francisco scientist points to a possible explanation, with the discovery that aspirin slows the accumulation of DNA mutations in abnormal cells in at least one pre-cancerous condition.
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Industry-Backed Studies More Prominent at Meetings
(Reuters Health) June 18, 2013 - Studies that are funded by pharmaceutical companies or involve industry-backed scientists tend to be more prominent at cancer meetings than independent studies, a new report suggests.
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Forget Lab Rats: Testing Asthma Drugs on a Microchip
(Wall Street Journal) June 17, 2013 - Forget lab rats. Some researchers are now testing medicines on a silicon chip that could provide a better read on how a drug will work.
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Physician Groups Stump for Meaningful Use Exemption Legislation
(iHealthBeat) June 17, 2013 - The American Medical Association and other health care provider groups have thrown their support behind a House bill (HR 1331) that would eliminate reimbursement penalties for certain physicians who are unable to fully participate in the Medicare portion of the meaningful use program.
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Doctors Lag Far Behind On New Medicare Diagnosis Codes
(Forbes) June 15, 2013 - Less than 5 percent of physician practices have made “significant progress” when rating their overall readiness for tens of thousands of new government-mandated “ICD-10” codes used to describe diseases and hospital procedures in the insurance billing process, a new study shows.
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