Latest California Healthline Stories
FDA Advisory Committee Recommends Resumption of One of Three Suspended Gene Therapy Experiments
An FDA advisory committee on Friday recommended that two of three recently suspended gene therapy experiments resume only when patients do not respond to other “reasonable alternatives,” such as bone marrow transplants, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Schwarzenegger Efforts To Address Medi-Cal Costs Examined
The AP/San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday examined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (R) “new attack” to limit California’s “soaring medical costs.”
Mandatory savings proposals included in the fiscal year 2006 budget plan proposed by President Bush would cost $16 billion over 10 years, rather than save $70 billion, in large part because of refundable health insurance and earned income and child tax credits that “mostly do not materialize” between FY 2006 and FY 2010, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released on Friday, CongressDaily reports.
Schwarzenegger Announces Support for Legislation Addressing Health Snacks in Schools
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Sunday indicated support for legislation to “ban the sale of all junk food in the public schools” in California, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office is calling for the immediate release of two reports, completed in December 2003, that analyze efforts to carry out promised reforms to the Los Angeles County health care system in fiscal years 2001 and 2002, the Los Angeles Times reports.
FDA Advisory Committee Hearing Addresses Safety Concerns Related to Cancer Medication Iressa
An FDA advisory panel on Friday began discussing whether or not to remove Iressa, manufactured by AstraZeneca, from the market after data from a large clinical trial indicated that the treatment did not prolong lives, the New York Times reports.
Court Ruling Allows Lawsuit Alleging Disability Discrimination Based on HIV-Status To Proceed
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled that three California men could sue American Airlines for disability discrimination after the airline rescinded job offers as flight attendants because the men did not disclose that they were HIV-positive, the Oakland Tribune reports.
FDA Seizes Two GlaxoSmithKline Medications Over Manufacturing Problems at Puerto Rico Facility
FDA officials on Friday announced that the agency has ended distribution of the antidepressant Paxil CR and the diabetes medication Avandamet, both manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, because of problems at a manufacturing facility in Cidra, Puerto Rico, that “dragged on for more than two years,” the New York Times reports.
State Officials Raise Concerns Over Prescription Drug Reimbursements for Dual-Eligibles
State Medicaid administrators are concerned that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit will not reduce state drug costs as promised, according to several officials who attended a congressional forum on Friday with CMS Administrator Mark McClellan, CQ HealthBeat reports.
The Congressional Budget Office on Friday said that the Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost $849 billion over the 10-year period ending in 2015, up $54 billion from the agency’s January projection, the AP/Detroit News reports.