Drug Safety news from FierceHealthcare

The Bush administration is asking Congress for an additional $275 million for fiscal 2009 to allow the FDA to add more workers, expand programs and technology, and perhaps most interestingly, Read more...

It looks like yet another set of popular drugs are facing allegations that they pose safety risks. Drugs named this week in unfavorable studies include Fosamax, which may create heart problems for Read more...

> Security pros are lambasting WellPoint, which may have inadvertently allowed Web users to access data on 130,000 of its beneficiaries. Read more...

The story doesn't get any prettier the more often its told. This set of data, from the fifth annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals study, makes a point often made elsewhere--that preventable Read more...

> Tennessee's Medicaid program and one of its Medicaid managed care providers have announced that they plan to kick off an e-prescribing pilot program in 13 of the state's rural counties. Read more...

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill designed to give the FDA more money and more authority to monitor and enforce drug safety rules. The bill, which is expected to pass the Senate Read more...

A recent study suggests physicians may be dismissing or minimizing patient complaints about possible side effects from statin drugs like Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor. University of California-San Diego Read more...

Some say that if outside researchers had access to drug safety data, disasters like the Vioxx scandal might have been avoided. At present, however, the FDA doesn't let outsiders see clinical trial data unless forced to do so. This secrecy can only do harm, suggests a new commentary in Health Affairs. Report

With physicians and hospitals offering only lukewarm support to proposed FDA reforms of its drug safety policy and communications with the public and providers, Congress is likely to push ahead with plans of its own to regulate the agency, experts say. Physician groups like the AMA and Medical Group Management Association said they were pleased with the FDA's plans to notify physicians more quickly about drug safety concerns, though as MGMA president noted, the FDA still has little …

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This is another noteworthy deal for Cerner, which as been the subject of rumors involving the massive NHS IT project in the U.K. The Kansas City-based maker of healthcare software appears to be making good on Neal Patterson's pledge to expand into new territory with the acquisition of Galt & Associates, a maker of drug safety and clinical data management systems. The Fairfax, VA-based company has 10 employees and recorded $9.5 million in revenue last year.

- see this article from the Business Journal of Kansas City