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WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail Obama's top domestic priority.

Barack Obama declared a big victory in his attempt to nationalize the health-care industry when he got the backing of the pharmaceutical industry, along with their pledge to reduce $80 billion in costs over the first decade of the plan. Now, however, the question of what the industry received in return has arisen now that the House version includes price negotiation on Medicare-funded prescription medications. The New York Times reported yesterday that the industry’s lobbyists have begun to cry foul as the administration apparently reneged on an agreement the White House wanted kept quiet: Drug industry lobbyists reacted with alarm...

WASHINGTON — Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion. Drug industry lobbyists reacted with alarm this week to a House health care overhaul measure that would allow the government to negotiate drug prices and demand additional rebates from drug manufacturers. In response, the industry successfully demanded that the White House explicitly acknowledge for the first time that it had committed to protect drug makers from bearing further costs in the overhaul....

The holiday home of Novartis chairman and CEO Daniel Vasella has been badly damaged by fire, a week after his mother's grave was desecrated by animal rights militants. Although police do not know who or what caused the fire early on Monday morning in the Tyrol, there is speculation that it is the work of the same group that took the urn of Vasella's mother on July 27. Her gravestone was defiled with a message saying the Basel pharmaceutical company must sever its ties with Britain's Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the largest contract animal-testing company in Europe. The recent attacks...

BERN, Switzerland – Drug maker Novartis AG said Tuesday that animal rights activists have stolen the ashes of its CEO's mother and set fire to his Austrian hunting lodge. Swiss authorities, however, said they didn't know who was behind the attacks. In the latest incident, CEO Daniel Vasella's Tyrollean lodge in Bach, Austria, was badly burned early Monday morning. "It was arson with a professional fire accelerator," Novartis spokeswoman Isabel Guerra said in Basel.

Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- The world may never know how many thousands of women have been injured, or even killed, by the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug. The best worldwide guess is that 13 women have been killed as a result of the mifepristone abortion pill, but the maker of the drug in Europe is saying 29 women have died. If the information given to the Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) by European abortion drug maker Exelgyn is correct, then twice as many women have died from the abortion drug globally than the pro-life community has thought. Currently, eight women have...

Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder As the anticipated July release date for Baxter's A/H1N1 flu pandemic vaccine approaches, an Austrian investigative journalist is warning the world that the greatest crime in the history of humanity is underway. Jane Burgermeister has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder. She has also prepared an Injunction against forced vaccination which is being filed in America....

WASHINGTON (AP) - One of the principal authors of health care legislation taking shape in the House accused drug companies and other medical providers Wednesday of stealing, and said they are now offering concessions in the hopes the bill that emerges will not demand too much of them. "Everyone knows that people around the table are stealing, but they don't want to turn each other in if they're going to have to pay the full penalty," said Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Asked in an interview on MSNBC what he meant by stealing, the...

FOX News: "Everyone knows that people around the table are stealing, but they don't want to turn each other in if they're going to have to pay the full penalty," said Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Asked in an interview on MSNBC what he meant by stealing, the New York Democrat replied, "I mean stealing." Asked if he were referring to drug companies, he said, "I'm talking about pharmaceuticals, in the sense that they're now coming forward saying that they want to be able to fill that vacuum that's there." FOX News: Rangel Accuses...

If asked to name the creature most similar to humans, most people would likely pick some sort of primate. Very few would think of zebra fish. But as the researchers at InDanio Bioscience can attest, the striped aquarium staple shares many similarities with humans and could hold the key to greatly improved human health. InDanio, a drug-discovery company based in Toronto's MaRS Discovery District, focuses on nuclear receptors, a class of proteins that are related to some of the most devastating and prevalent diseases on the planet, including immune disorders, obesity, diabetes and most cancers. The problem is, the majority...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday welcomed the pharmaceutical industry's agreement to help close a gap in Medicare's drug coverage, calling the pact a step forward in the push for overhaul of the nation's health care system. Obama said that drug companies have pledged to spend $80 billion over the next decade to help reduce the cost of drugs for seniors and pay for a portion of Obama's health care legislation.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama's health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations involving key lawmakers and the White House.

Alexander Pope decried the American Indian’s “untutor’d mind” that “Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.” But Pope never encountered the Indian Health Service, which delivers what it is pleased to call health care to two million American Indians living on reservations in thirty-five states. “Don’t get sick after June” is the standard advice, for by then the money allocated by Congress has mostly run out.

"Without any assurance that intellectual property will be respected and protected, not only drug makers, but other companies as well, will avoid investing in developing new products since they risk having their investments effectively expropriated by the government”

The Pathway For Biosimilars Act introduced by Eschoo (D-Ca), Inslee ( D-Wa) and Barton(R-Tx) will ensure enough time for companies to recoup their cost of research and development before a generic manufacturer could use the innovators research data. By doing so, companies will have an incentive to continue inventing life saving drugs. Join PRA in supporting H.R. 1548.

U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., says he has introduced a bill that would limit when TV and radio advertisements for erectile dysfunction medication can be aired. Moran said he proposed the bill in April after hearing numerous complaints about radio and TV advertisements that offer medication to help with the sexual dysfunction, CNN reported Thursday. "A number of people," Moran said, "have come up, including colleagues, and said I'm fed up. I don't want my 3- or 4-year old grandkid asking me what erectile dysfunction is all about. And I don't blame them." Moran's proposal would have the Federal Communications...

ckerspy index of swine flu and bird flu stocks is up 21% as the market nears its close. The index is being pushed higher by share in Biocryst Pharma (BRCX), which is up 70% on the day, Novavax (NVAX), which is up 68%, and Pure Bioscience (PURE), which is higher by 50%. If the WHO and CDC begin to show less concern about the current virus, most of the stock will lose their gains.

The swine flu outbreak is likely to benefit one of the most prolific and successful venture capital firms in the United States: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Thomson Reuters Private Equity Week reported on Friday. Skip related content Shares of the two public companies in the firm's portfolio of eight Pandemic and Bio Defence companies -- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Novavax -- jumped Friday on news that the swine flu killed a reported 60 people in Mexico and has infected people in the United States. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the virus appears to be susceptible to Roche's flu drug...

The dividend aristocrats index has had five dividend cuts so far this year. Because of the way that the index is rebalanced, the dividend cutters will remain a part of the elite basket of S&P 500 companies which have consistently raised their dividends for over 25 consecutive years. Unless a member of the Dividend Aristocrats index is removed from the S&P 500, it won’t be removed from the elite income index. The five companies, which cut dividends so far in 2009, will most likely be booted out of the index at the annual December reconstitution. Back in February, General Electric...

It's been a dream for a decade: a single daily pill combining aspirin, cholesterol medicine and blood pressure drugs — everything people need to prevent heart attacks and strokes in a cheap, generic form. Skeptics said five medicines rolled into a single pill would mean five times more side effects. Some people would get drugs they don't need, while others would get too little. One-size-fits-all would turn out to fit very few, they warned. Now the first big test of the "polypill" has proved them wrong. The experimental combo pill was as effective as nearly all of its components taken...