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President Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) are set to battle over McCain's "Bipartisan Patient Protection Act of 2001," a patients' rights proposal he has introduced with Senators John Edwards (D-NC), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Bob Graham (D-FL). The proposal would:

Antidepressants in the SSRI/SNRI class were the subject of the most pharmaceutical industry details and events during the third quarter of 2000, according to an audit by Newtown, PA-based Scott-Levin.

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala released the nation's first standards for protecting the privacy of Americans' personal health records.

A new report by New York-based Datamonitor reveals that both traditional and innovative therapy opportunities will exist for breast cancer in the near future.

No one wants to hang around people who are sad all the time, or who have a chip on their shoulder.

Prioritize, manage and monitor daily activities.

Finding the right physician is the "best advice" irritable bowel syndrome patients would give to fellow IBS sufferers, according to Andover, MA-based DrugVoice's new 200-plus-question survey of over 1,700 IBS patients.

An updated version of the "Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in HIV-Infected Adults and Adolescents" has been released by the Panel on Clinical Practices for the Treatment of HIV Infection, a joint effort of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Menlo Park, CA-based Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Fair price comparisons between pharmaceuticals sold in foreign countries and those sold in the United States may not be possible, according to a new report from the Federal Trade Commission. The study, conducted at the request of the House Ways and Means Committee, reveals how drug prices are established, the role of compulsory licensing in setting prices and a description of the costs associated with the development of prescription drugs in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the United Kingdom.

America's registered nurses feel that deteriorating working conditions have led to a decline in the quality of nursing care, according to a national survey released by the Washington-based American Nurses Association.

According to a recently released survey by the Bethesda, MD-based American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, over half (51%) of American adults take two or more medications each day. In addition, almost half (46%) of Americans take at least one prescription medicine every day, while more than a quarter (28%) take multiple prescription medications daily. The survey of 1,000 Americans focused on consumers' use of prescription and nonprescription medications, including herbal supplements and vitamins.

A General Accounting Office examination of prescription drugs withdrawn from the U.S. market determined that most posed more health risks to women than to men. According to the GAO, ten prescription drugs have been withdrawn since January 1997, eight of which caused more adverse events in women; four of the drugs' users were mostly women, and four were widely prescribed to both men and women.

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 344, no. 3) asserts that the increased penetration of managed care organizations actually increases the amount of time patients spend with their doctors. The article debunks most physicians' perception that managed care limits the time they have to spend with their patients.

London, UK-Changes to the law on human embryo research could herald a new era for UK biotech research. The government feared its proposals to allow the cloning of embryos as sources for stem cells for research would be thrown out by the House of Lords-where a powerful body of opinion holds that they represent a slippery slope toward reproductive cloning-but the proposals passed by a surprisingly large majority.

Industry Must Set Product Prices That Ensure Reasonable Profit - and Minimize Political Fallout

The number of pharmaceuticals in development recently mushroomed, and the complexity of trials is increasing. Amgen has reduced its cycle times but still wants to improve efficiency and cost effectiveness as it enlarges its pipeline, presenting tough new challenges in clinical research.

Sodertalje, Sweden-After two consecutive years of robust postmerger growth, AstraZeneca is facing a tough 2001. The company recorded a 16 percent increase in pretax profits for 2000, but CEO Tom McKillop advises that this year}s growth will be in the 5}6 percent range when Losec/Prilosec (omeprazole)-the world}s best-selling medicine-goes off patent and the US launch of its successor Nexium (esomeprazole) is delayed.

A cure for cancer is the Holy Grail of modern medicine--long sought but seemingly unattainable. Because cancer cells are not foreign, easily identifiable invaders, but native parts of the bodies in which they live, neither the immune system nor chemical compounds have been able to accurately target and eliminate them from healthy tissue.

Of course, Digital Pharma and the drug Virtua are fantasy. But the digital technologies highlighted in the fictional news story are available today.

New Delhi, India-Anthrax, a disease that most commonly infects livestock, has been diagnosed at an increasing rate in humans in the southern states of India. The disease has been eradicated in the developed world but remains endemic in South India, mostly due to a lack of effective human and animal vaccines.

Beijing, China-Chinese scientists registered more than 110 patents on genes cloned last year from the human hypothalamus}pituitary}adrenal axis. They profiled the axis} gene expression, cloning more than 300 previously unknown genes discovered during its sequencing.

FDA proposals for expanding the pediatric study program include tax incentives and }transferable exclusivity.}

How can we use the Internet to communicate more effectively with wholesale customers and increase efficiencies by automating work processes? That intriguing question from our marketing group started the ball rolling, recalls Mike Conley, executive director of customer service at Novartis.

Sidney Taurel Takes His Global Team Beyond Prozac

Huntingdon, UK-Huntingdon Life Sciences, a contract research organization under siege by animal rights activists, secured its short-term future through a refinancing package offered by overseas institutions.

It}s generally accepted that pharmaceutical companies need to transform their business processes to remain competitive in the global economy. Shareholders, analysts, partners, suppliers, and customers consistently applaud announcements about information technology (IT) improvements. But managing the necessary changes to exploit the value of e-business initiatives is more problematic than many companies realize, requiring a focused management effort, within which is buried the stealth issue of e-business taxation.

Stirling, UK-Scotia became the first public UK biotechnology company to seek protection from creditors after the European Medicines Evaluation Agency rejected Foscan (temoporfin), the anticancer agent on which its fortunes were pinned.

United States-At this time last year, the United States} supply of tetanus vaccine was easily met by the two companies licensed to produce it there, Aventis Pasteur and Wyeth-Ayerst. But in June 2000, the latter ran into regulatory problems, and FDA seized thousands of substandard doses of acellular pertussis vaccine from the company}s Marietta, Pennsylvania, plant.

Marketers Face A Slew of New Challenges as FDA Examines the Rx-to-OTC Switch

Brazil}In 1994, the World Bank estimated that 1.2 million Brazilians would be HIV-positive in 2000.