Innovation, influence and business in America's medical cities.

The Procter & Gamble Co. announced this week that it wouldjettison its powerful but burdensome global pharmaceuticals business for $3.1 billion, moving away from a sector that the drug giant struggled to manage as regulatory barriers climbed and profit margin dipped below that of its formidable consumer drug market.

Most of 2,300 pharmaceutical sector employees including 450 in suburban Cincinnati will be transferred to the Irish drugmaker Warner Chilcott. Warnergets all of P&G's pharmaceutical products including the $1 billion selling osteoporosis drug Actonel; co-promotion rights to Enablex (with Novartis), an overactive bladder treatment; P&G's prescription drug product pipeline and manufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico and Germany. The deal should close by year's end.

Electronic medical records company Noteworthy Medical Systemsraised $4 million to smooth the transition after its partial acquisition by German medical records company CompuGROUP in February, Then, Noteworthywas integrating acquired companies MARS Medical Systems Inc.and ChartConnect.Noteworthy also moved its headquarters to Phoenix, Ariz., from Mayfield Heights, Ohio, because of its recent acquisitions. The slow economy necessitatedanother moneyraise, Noteworthy CEO Susan Hagerty said.

In other news, EyeScience Labsin Columbus, which makes supplements for certain eye problems, raised just over $400,000 of a half-million dollar equity round, Diagnostic Hybrids Inc. in Athens, Ohio, won Food and Drug Administration marketing clearance for a thyroid test, and PercuVisionin Columbus won FDA marketing clearance for itsdevice that guides medical staff through a urethral catheterizations. Meanwhile, the emerging BioInnovation Institute in Akron hired its first president and chief executive: Dr. Frank L. Douglas,founder and formerexecutive director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center of Biomedical Innovation. Douglas, whostarts Sept. 1, sees the Akron institute as “the Mount Everest of social and medical transformation.”

In addition,early-stage pharmaceutical company CNS Therapeutics in Woodbury, Minn.,raised $7 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Not much is known about the 2-year-old company, and CNS President John Foster won't share development plans publicly. Meanwhile, PSI Medical Catheter Care in Erie, Pa., expects to close its $1.5 million capital raisenext week to develop better ways todisinfectintravenous catheters and protect themfrom bacteria. And Joe Kremer, director of the 28-member Wisconsin Angel Network, said he’d rather collaborate than competewith nearby states to win biotech startups.

Ohio's public universities could transfer more of their research discoveries to companies that can take them to market creating new products and jobs under an amendment that was part of thebudget bill for this fiscal year. And nursing schools throughout the country, including Case Western Reserve University,will use stimulus money to expand efforts this academic year to cut the nurse-educator shortage and broaden a loan program often reserved only for doctoral students.

Gracious in victory. Cleveland Clinic Innovations' Chris Coburn (right) makes a victory speech while MedCity News co-founders Mary Vanac and Chris Seper turn over the awards.

For us at MedCity News,theviral lawn game from Kentuckytook front and center on Thursday afternoon at our MedCity News Cornhole Tournament. More than 100 people turned out at Cleveland’s Edgewater Park. The drizzle broke just long enough for Chris Coburn and Pete O’Neillfrom Cleveland Clinic Innovations to win the tournament, which we hope will be the first of many annual tournaments. Thanks for your support!