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Pledges To Reduce Health Care Costs, Spending Growth Could Violate Antitrust Laws, Lawyers Say
U.S. antitrust laws could affect health care industry groups" efforts to work together to rein in health care costs, the New York Times reports (Pear, New York Times, 5/27). In a letter sent to President Obama on May 10, a coalition of groups -- the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, America"s Health Insurance Plans and the Service Employees International Union -- pledged to reduce the annual health care spending growth rate by 1.5%. The groups did not elaborate on what specific measures they would use to achieve such reductions, but the Obama administration has requested specific plans from the groups by June 1 (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 5/26). According to the Times, many of the plans being considered by the health care industry would require greater cooperation across health care providers. Robert Leibenluft, a former Federal Trade Commission official, said, "Any agreement among competitors with regard to prices or price increases -- even if they set a maximum -- would raise legal concerns." In addition, while Obama is asking for specific plans from the health care industry, the administration has not offered any relief from antitrust laws, the Times reports. Furthermore, during his campaign Obama pledged to increase enforcement of antitrust laws, according to the Times.Antitrust laws have had a negative effect on previous health reform efforts, the Times reports. In 1993, the drug industry established a voluntary cost control plan that limited each drug company"s annual increase in the average price of prescription drugs to the increase in the Consumer Price Index, but the Department of Justice ruled that the proposal would violate antitrust laws. DOJ officials said that the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear that setting price maximums was akin to setting price minimums, which is illegal. In a letter to the Senate Finance Committee, AHA wrote that uncertainty regarding the enforcement of antitrust laws "makes it difficult for a hospital and doctors to collaborate to improve care" and reduce costs. AMA has asked Congress to amend antitrust laws to allow physicians to collectively negotiate with insurers over fees and other concerns, but FTC repeatedly has designated the practice illegal price-fixing, according to the Times. FTC officials said that consumers could benefit from cooperation among health care industry groups but that cooperation also could lead to increased bargaining power for physicians and hospitals, making it easier for them to set prices and eliminate competition (New York Times, 5/27). Reform Developments Don't forget to buy zoloft online no prescription.

World Health Organization And International Atomic Energy Agency Join Forces To Fight Cancer
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today announced the launch of a Joint Programme on Cancer Control, aimed at strengthening and accelerating efforts to fight cancer in the developing world.

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MPS Advises Doctors On Email Consultations
MPS, a leading medical protection organisation, is advising doctors on the issues they should be aware of when consulting with patients via email.
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Blood Test Shows Statistically Significant Association With Alzheimer's Disease (AD), May Predict Conversion Of Mild Cognitive Impairment To AD

Dr. Zsuzsanna Nagy of the University of Birmingham presented data from a clinical study, funded by Cytox Limited, demonstrating that a simple blood-based biomarker discriminated between patients with Alzheimer"s disease (AD) and control subjects. The findings were statistically highly significant, and the test discriminated between the two groups with 80% sensitivity and 80% specificity. The results also showed that 40% of the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients tested had the same test results as AD patients. Follow up study of MCI patients enrolled in an earlier study found that the test allowed early identification of those MCI patients who later developed dementia. The results were presented at the 2009 Alzheimer"s Association International Conference on Alzheimer"s Disease (ICAD 2009), held in Vienna, Austria. The blood test measures the integrity of the cell cycle G1/S restriction point in peripheral blood lymphocytes. Dr. Nagy, the inventor of the test and scientific co-founder of Cytox Ltd, was the principal investigator of the study, which was conducted in collaboration with the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Aging (OPTIMA). According to Dr. Nagy, "The results of this study support the cell cycle hypothesis of Alzheimer"s disease - specifically, that G1/S cell cycle regulatory failure leads to the downstream development of the characteristic pathologies of the disease, the amyloid plaques and tau tangles. Most importantly, the findings validate the use of our lymphocyte test as a biomarker of Alzheimer"s disease and suggest that the test is predictive of cognitive deficit developing in MCI patients." About University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham is a world leading research-led institution and member of the elite Russell group of universities. Expertise within its five Colleges includes Medicine and Dentistry, Engineering and Physical Sciences, Life and Environmental Sciences, Social Sciences and Arts and Law. The University was one of the first civic universities, receiving its Royal Charter in 1900, and is one of the largest in the UK, with 27,000 students. The University of Birmingham is consistently ranked as a top UK university with a world presence and counts eight Nobel Prize winners amongst alumni and staff. According to the recent independent UK Research Assessment Exercise, nearly 90% of the University of Birmingham"s research activity has international impact. About Cytox Limited Cytox is a UK company developing products and services for neurodegenerative disorders. The company provides biomarker services to pharmaceutical industry clients conducting clinical trials with drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer"s disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Cytox"s blood tests enable the prediction of which patients with MCI will develop AD. The biomarkers are based on the cell cycle hypothesis of AD and were invented by Dr. Zsuzsanna Nagy at the University of Oxford and the University of Birmingham. Cytox Limited


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