Current medical news and unique business news for anyone who cares about the healthcare industry.
Pharmaceutical industry job cuts: 297,650. That’s how many jobs the pharma industry has cut since 2000, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Forbes notes that that’s more jobs than workers currently employed by the three largest drug makers – Pfizer, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline – combined. The peak wave of layoffs came in 2009, when more than 60,000 pharma industry jobs were cut. Some of those job cuts were the results of mergers and some who were laid off likely got jobs with other pharma companies. But the total still represents a staggering number of workers.
But physicians offices are hiring: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that physician practices hired for about 16,500 jobs in the first quarter. In the first quarter of 2010, physician offices hired for only 4,900 jobs.
Overbilling lawsuit: California’s insurance commissioner alleges that Sutter Health, a 24-hospital system in California, overbilled patients by more than $100 million for anesthesia services.
Hospital purchasing coalition: Twenty eight health systems representing more than 100 New England hospitals, all members of health care network VHA have formed a purchasing coalition. The group says collaborative purchasing should cut non-salary hospital costs.
Med tech innovation for the disabled: Brigham Young University students have created a novel eye-tracking tablet that is envisioned as serving those with disabilities.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Dealflow: Merrimack Pharmaceuticals raises $77 million; Redwood City, California insulin patch company Calibra Medical raises $8 million; Axcan acquires Mpex Pharmaceuticals.
