[Boston.com]- A survey of top executives of U.S. drugmakers indicates mergers and acquisitions should pick up in the next couple of years, as companies aim to offset rising generic competition.
The survey by audit and advisory consultants KPMG LLP found 83 percent of pharmaceutical executives believe their company likely will be a buyer or a seller [...]

[The Economist] DRUG smugglers can expect harsh penalties nearly everywhere—if the drugs in question are heroin or cocaine. Those who smuggle counterfeit medicines, by contrast, have often faced lax enforcement and light punishment. Some governments deem drug-counterfeiting a trivial offence, little more than a common irritant. After all, whose spam filter does not groan with ads [...]

[NYT] When poor people are given medical insurance, they not only find regular doctors and see doctors more often but they also feel better, are less depressed and are better able to maintain financial stability, according to a new, large-scale study that provides the first rigorously controlled assessment of the impact of Medicaid.
While the findings may [...]

[LA Times]- Reporting from Sacramento— California’s stem cell research agency says it needs billions more taxpayer dollars to deliver on promised cures to major diseases. Yet at a time when other departments are cutting back spending, the agency recently agreed to pay its new boss one of the highest salaries in state government.
The 50-person grant-making [...]

[NYT] Poverty is often cited as contributing to poor health. Now, in an unusual approach, researchers have calculated how many people poverty kills and presented their findings, along with an argument that social factors can cause death the same way that behavior like smoking cigarettes does.
In an article published online for the June 16 issue [...]

[FirstWord]- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) publicly listed for the first time the prices it pays individual drug manufacturers for vaccines. UNICEF spokesperson Joan Howe stated that the agency made the decision “in the hopes it will lead to a more competitive market and lower prices, especially for newer vaccines.”
The agency, which spent $757 [...]

[GenomeWeb News]- The National Human Genome Research Institute will provide up to $10.8 million in grants next year to fund three new programs that will support investigators seeking to develop new high-throughput technologies for identifying, validating, and characterizing sequence encoded elements in eukaryotic genomes.
The goal of the new grant program is to build upon and [...]

[Nestle]- Nestlé Health Science S.A. today announced that it has agreed to acquire Prometheus Laboratories Inc., a San Diego-based company. Prometheus specialises in diagnostics and in-licensed specialty pharmaceuticals in gastroenterology and oncology, and has a dedicated team of highly qualified medical sales representatives. The company focuses on conditions such as inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s [...]

[USA Today]- An estimated 15,000 Medicare patients die each month in part because of care they receive in the hospital, says a government study released today.
The study is the first of its kind aimed at understanding “adverse events” in hospitals — essentially, any medical care that causes harm to a patient, according to the Department [...]

[The Washington Post]- As the U.S. government steps up investigations of companies suspected of paying bribes overseas, law enforcement officials are leaving much of the detective work to the very corporations under suspicion.
The probes are so costly and wide-ranging that the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission often let the companies investigate themselves and then share the [...]