Current medical news and unique business news for anyone who cares about the healthcare industry.
Healthcare spending slowdown. U.S. healthcare spending grew 3.9 percent in 2010, reaching $2.6 trillion, according to a new report from the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services. The spending averages to $8,402 per person, tops among industrialized countries. But the increases in 2010 and 2009 are the lowest in more than 50 years and healthcare’s share of the economy has leveled off at 17.9 percent. The report cites persistently high unemployment and the loss of private health insurance coverage among the factors leading people to forgo care or seek less costly alternatives.
Warp Drive Bio launches. A new life science venture called Warp Drive Bio takes off with a $125 million initial investment from Sanofi (NYSE:SNY). Warp Drive has developed a proprietary genomics platform to “unlock nature’s drugs and ultimately, create breakthrough therapies for patients.”
CVS acquisition. CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS) subsidiary Pennsylvania Life Insurance Company acquires the Medicare prescription drug plan business of Health Net (NYSE:HNT) for $160 million cash. Health Net expects to net about $140 million from the deal. The plan covers about 400,000 members in 49 states.
Baxter hires MDT executive. Baxter International (NYSE:BAX) names former Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) Jean-Luc Butel to become the company’s president of international operations, reporting directly to Baxter CEO Robert Parkinson, Jr. At Medtronic, Butel was executive vice president and group president, international.
Beyonce’s baby. The birth of Blue Ivy Carter, daughter of musicians Jay-Z and Beyonce, has sparked the interest of music fans and stirred concerns among patients at Lenox Hill Hospital where baby Carter was born. The New York Times reported that some patients and their families were blocked from the floor by the musical couple’s private security. Other stories claimed that Beyonce and Jay-Z paid more than $1 million to reserve an entire floor. Not true, says the hospital. And if patients have complaints, the hospital hasn’t heard them. “No security plan that we or the Carters’ security team put in place would have prevented or delayed families from gaining access to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit,” Lenox’s Executive Director Frank Danza said in a statement.
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.
Photo from Flickr user dannysullivan
