The number of younger Americans reaching for prescription drugs to get a good night's sleep is soaring, according to a study conducted by a prescription management company.

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MSNBC.com

Swiss drug maker Roche, under pressure to increase output of its antiviral drug Tamiflu as avian flu reaches Europe, said it would consider granting other firms licenses to make the drug.

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MSNBC.com

International Herald Tribune
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2005

Facing growing pressure from governments seeking to fight a possible bird flu epidemic, the Swiss drug maker Roche said Tuesday that it would permit more outside companies to make its medicine Tamiflu.

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IHT.com

		Discovery Provides New Clues about Causes of Rett Syndrome
		October 17, 2005 -- Researchers studying the childhood neurological disorder Rett syndrome have discovered a new clue about how the disorder can cause a devastating range of symptoms. Full Details

Healthorbit.ca

The Swiss manufacturer of the AIDS treatment drug Serostim agreed Monday to pay $704 million and plead guilty to scheming to boost sagging sales by, among other things, offering kickbacks to doctors to write prescriptions.

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MSNBC.com

17/10/2005 - Cipla announced plans on Friday that will see it become the first company to sell a generic version of the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu.

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In-PharmaTechnologist.com

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. said it reached a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers that will help the embattled automaker lower its health care costs even as GM reported a whopping $1.6 billion loss for the third quarter.

The announcements Monday came as the world's biggest automaker also said it was considering selling a controlling stake in its financial services arm in a bid to restore its investment grade credit rating. GM's ratings were lowered to junk status earlier this year, a move that could boost its borrowing costs.

GM shares rose $2.04, or 7.3 percent, to $30.02 in late morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. They were up 12 percent earlier in the day and have traded in a 52-week range of $24.67 to $42.22.

The tentative agreement on health care is projected to reduce GM's retiree health care liabilities by about 25 percent, or $15 billion, and cut its annual employee health care expense by about $3 billion, CEO and Chairman Rick Wagoner said. Cash savings are estimated to be about $1 billion a year.

GM asked the UAW to help it lower its health care costs before its contract with the union expires in 2007. Both parties have been in negotiations since spring.

"These negotiations were done in a positive, cooperative, problem-solving spirit," Wagoner told employees at GM headquarters in Detroit. "While it may have taken some time to reach this cooperative solution, I think it was time well-spent."

The UAW didn't immediately comment Monday morning.

In its earnings report, GM said it lost $2.89 per share for the July-September period in contrast to a profit of $315 million, or 56 cents a share, a year ago. The loss included charges of $861 million in charges for restructuring and lower asset values in North America and Europe.

Without the special items, GM's loss amounted to $1.1 billion, or $1.92 a share. But that is still much more than the loss of 87 cents a share that analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected.

Total revenue was $47 billion for the quarter, up from $44.8 billion in 2004.

Wagoner said the results were disappointing but the company is confident its new vehicles, including a new lineup of more fuel efficient SUVs, along with reductions in health care costs will fuel a turnaround.

"I think we're trying to address the issues we face very proactively. We're not relying just on cost reductions," Wagoner said.

GM's North American division lost $1.6 billion in the quarter versus a loss of $88 million a year ago. The automaker's North American market share was down to 25.6 percent from 28.5 percent a year ago.

GM Europe reported a loss of $150 million in the quarter compared with a loss of $236 million a year ago, but earnings more than doubled from its Asia Pacific region to $176 million from $78 million earned in the year-ago quarter.

Wagoner said the automaker will spend several months selecting a strategic partner who would buy a stake of more than 50 percent in its GMAC finance division. He didn't say how much the sale might raise.

"This is, we think, a move that is consistent with our strategy of maintaining the synergy between GM and GMAC and at the same time really increasing their ability to grow their business," Wagoner said.

GMAC earned $675 million in the third quarter, up from $620 million in the same period in 2004.

The tentative health care agreement with the UAW also includes contributions to a new, independent voluntary employee benefit plan, which will be partially funded by GM.

Wagoner said the modified plan will continue to provide high-quality health care for GM's more than 750,000 hourly workers and dependents, retirees and surviving spouses in the U.S.

He said the company is on track to reduce 25,000 manufacturing jobs by 2008, a goal it announced earlier this year. The company said it wants its plants operating at 100 percent capacity by that time. Wagoner said the company expects to announce more details about that plan before the end of this year.

Wagoner said many of the layoffs will happen through attrition, but he acknowledged the process will be a difficult one.

"We will do our best to minimize this impact on each of you and your families," he said. "We hope you will understand that, with these difficult actions, we will help to ensure a viable and growing GM for the future."

GM expects to spend $5.6 billion on health care this year. Wagoner said the company will work with the UAW in asking the federal government to help reduce health care costs, although he wouldn't say if he supports a national health care plan, which the UAW advocates.

"Health care costs in this country are out of control," Wagoner said. "We would really like to see much more focus and leadership from elected officials, especially in Washington."

washingtonpost.com

	From The McKinsey Quarterly:
Health Care In the News: Controlling health care costs General Motors and the United Auto Workers union have struck a tentative deal that reduces GM's share of health benefit costs. These articles from the archive offer companies across industries some guidelines to giving employees the benefits they want at a price the companies can afford. Designing better employee benefits http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/links/19494 How to control health benefit costs (Premium) http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/links/19495

The McKinsey Quarterly

		Preventing Dangerous Drug Interactions With a Paper Bag
		October 14, 2005 | CHICAGO - Millions of older adults take more than five prescription drugs daily. Add to that numerous over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, health supplements, and herbal remedies and it is easy to see why geriatric patients are especially likely to suffer dangerous adverse drug reactions. Full Details

Healthorbit.ca

By ALEX BERENSON
With a generic on the way, Pfizer plans to convince insurers that its cholesterol-lowering drug is worth a premium price.

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NYTimes.com

By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Baxter International Inc. said yesterday that the Food and Drug Administration had seized 6,000 company-owned Colleague infusion pumps that were linked to deaths.

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NYTimes.com

		Helping drugs get around: research points way to more effective delivery of medicine around the body
		13 October 2005 -- New research showing how drugs stick to a key protein in the bloodstream could help to create drugs that are delivered more effectively to organs in the body. Full Details

Healthorbit.ca

17/10/2005 - The first non-injectable insulin treatment in Europe may soon become available after a panel of experts recommended it for regulatory approval on Thursday.

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In-PharmaTechnologist.com

14/10/2005 - The GEA Group has acquired the manufacturer of freeze dryers for pharmaceutical products, STERIS, a unit of US-based STERIS Corporation in a deal that aims to strengthen the group's Process Engineering Division in the Process Engineering Segment.

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In-PharmaTechnologist.com

14/10/2005 - Clinical trials for what may be the first effective culture-based vaccine against the highly-pathogenic avian influenza viruses will begin in Norway in Spring 2006.

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In-PharmaTechnologist.com

(AP) -- Plastic surgeon Frederic Corbin was intrigued last year when he saw an ad for a product that offered the same protein used in the wildly popular wrinkle treatment Botox -- only much, much, cheaper.

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CNN.com

After wandering amid cages of birds and rabbits at an open-air market in Hanoi, after
watching the gutting of a freshly slaughtered chicken, and after visiting a Haiphong
family sickened by bird flu, the United States' top health official came to a grim
conclusion: Preventing the start of a global flu outbreak is just about impossible.

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MSNBC.com

The bird flu virus that infected a Vietnamese girl was resistant to the main drug that's
being stockpiled in case of a pandemic, a sign that it's important to keep a second drug
on hand as well, a researcher said.

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MSNBC.com

U.S. and the United Nations move to mobilize vaccine and drugmakers

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C&E News

What if that patent you're paying royalties on suddenly gets extended? Have you negotiated the best licensing deal possible?

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Bio-IT World.com

Two safer new vaccines against whooping cough could prevent up to 1 million cases among U.S. teenagers and adults each year and keep them from infecting children, who can die from the illness, a government study found.

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CNN.com

The authors describe an in-situ cleaning verification technique that promises to be faster and more efficient than traditional methods, which use swab sampling followed by HPLC analysis. The technique is based upon FT-IR spectroscopy in the middle-infrared (mid-IR) range using reflection at a grazing angle.

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Spectroscopy