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Divisions Over Future Medicare Spending Surface In House
"A week-old agreement among House Democrats to smooth out disparities in the way Medicare reimburses rural and urban health providers is in danger of crumbling, as disputes erupted Friday over what actually was agreed to," The Wall Street Journal reports. "Some lawmakers from states with high health-care costs are also pressing House Democratic leaders for changes to the deal to ensure that their doctors and hospitals don"t see too big of a bite. ò€Ĥ Lawmakers from populous areas are questioning whether the deal on geographic disparities should be altered to allow more time for Medicare changes to take effect, since there is no longer the urgency of putting those changes into effect before the public option is rolled out. Another issue is for how long a period of time after changes go into effect urban hospitals should be "held harmless," meaning they won"t see their Medicare reimbursements cut" (Vaughan, 8/2).
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Obama Leaves Door Open To Tax On Health Benefits
"President Barack Obama on Wednesday rejected the idea of fully taxing Americans" employer-provided health insurance benefits, but suggested he might be persuaded to tax so-called Cadillac coverage ... in the interest of a compromise with Congress," McClatchy/The Star-Telegram reports. The President, speaking at a "town hall-style event" taped at the White House and aired on ABC News, "said he would prefer to pay for expanded coverage by eliminating some deductions for higher-earning taxpayers but that "there"s going to have to be some compromise." The President "said he understands Americans" trepidation about changing the system: "They know that they"re living with the devil, but the devil they know they think may be better than the devil they don"t." He said any reform would be phased in, not happen overnight" (Talev and Lightman, 6/24).
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Human Genome Sciences Submits Biologics License Application To FDA For ABthrax(TM)
Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: HGSI) announced that it has submitted a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its human monoclonal antibody drug ABthrax(TM) (raxibacumab) for the treatment of inhalation anthrax.
Oncology

'Hijacking Mechanism' Of HIV-1' Pinpointed By McGill/JGH Researchers

Researchers at McGill University and the affiliated Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at Montreal"s Jewish General Hospital - along with colleagues at the University of Manitoba and the University of British Columbia - may have found a chink in the armour of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the microorganism which causes AIDS. They have pinpointed the key cellular machinery co-opted by HIV-1 to hijack the human cell for its own benefit. Their study was published in May in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Once a cell is infected with HIV-1, activation of the virus"s gene generates a large HIV-1 RNA molecule known as the RNA genome. This is then transported from the cell nucleus to the inner surface of the plasma membrane. The RNA genome can produce both structural proteins and enzymes, but once it arrives at the plasma membrane it can also assemble into new copies of the virus that actually bud out of the cell. Dr. Andrew J. Mouland and his colleagues have discovered how the RNA genome gets transported - or trafficked - from the nucleus to the plasma membrane. "There is a highway inside the human cell," explained Dr. Mouland, Associate Professor at McGill"s Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology and head of the HIV-1 RNA Trafficking Laboratory at the Lady Davis Institute. "When you drive your car to Toronto you"re "trafficking" the items in your trunk. Similarly, what we have shown is that HIV-1 commandeers the host cell"s endosomal machinery to traffic its structural proteins and RNA genome. Imagine that it"s essentially jumping on board for the ride and directing it to where it needs to go. This trafficking can occur very fast in cells; so this is how these key components of HIV-1 so efficiently get to the plasma membrane, where the virus can begin to assemble. "The RNA genome is critical, because if it doesn"t get trafficked to the right place at the plasma membrane, the virus will not be infectious," he explained. This discovery is extremely exciting, Dr. Mouland said, because now that researchers understand a little more about how the cell"s transport machinery is hijacked by HIV-1, they have hopes that they can now begin to devise strategies to block the process. This work is substantiated by a co-submitted manuscript from the group of ç‰douard Bertrand at the Institut de gçİnçİtique molçİculaire de Montpellier, Centre national de recherche scientifique. The Bertrand group will publish its work in the same journal in June, 2009. Mark Shainblum McGill University


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