Toluu

WSJ.com: Health Blog

WSJ's blog on health and the business of health.

Early C-Sections Can Double Health Risks for NewbornsToday

There’s strong new evidence that scheduling a delivery by Cesarean section even a week or two before full term can significantly raise the risk of health problems in newborns.

Researchers at 19 medical centers around the country monitored 13,258 babies born via elective repeat c-section between 1999 and 2002. (Each of the mothers had had a previous c-section, opted to deliver that way again and scheduled the birth in advance, without going into labor.) More than one-third of the babies were delivered at 37 or 38 weeks of gestation, and they had significantly higher rates of respiratory distress, sepsis and hypoglycemia than those born at 39 and 40 weeks.

The babies were also more likely to need CPR, be admitted to a NICU and be hospitalized for five or more days. The rate of problems rose again for babies born at 41 and 42 weeks, suggesting there’s a very narrow window for scheduling deliveries to achieve the best outcome for babies.

The results appear in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings add to the concerns about early deliveries, described in this recent Health Journal column.

Diversifying Wyeth Eyes Vaccine Maker CrucellToday

Plenty of rumors have swirled around the idea Wyeth could be taken over by a larger drugmaker. But today, Wyeth is the one on the hunt.

The WSJ reports the company is in talks to buy Dutch vaccine maker Crucell. The two sides could reach a deal as early as next week that would value Crucell at more than $1.35 billion, the paper says. It’s still possible, though, that another suitor, like Novartis or Sanofi-Aventis, could win Crucell.

Wyeth has been steadily shifting its focus toward vaccines and biotech drugs, reducing its reliance on traditional pharmaceuticals that are more vulnerable to generic competition. One of the bright spots in its portfolio is the pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar.

At an investor conference hosted by Goldman Sachs today, Wyeth CEO Bernard Poussot said the company is “in a position today to be much more aggressive” about dealmaking than it has in the past five years. He added he expects the proportion of the company’s revenue from sources other than traditional pharmaceuticals — such as biotech drugs, vaccines and consumer products — to

Soon Free of Bush Veto Pen, Democrats Push Children’s HealthToday

The Democrats aren’t wasting time in their push to expand government health insurance for children.

Rep. Henry Waxman, who recently won the chairmanship of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, says he expects the House to vote Tuesday or Wednesday of next week on a bill to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Associated Press reports.

The Dems were unable to overcome President Bush’s opposition when they tried to expand the program. He twice vetoed legislation that would have expanded the program by $35 billion over five years.

It isn’t clear yet exactly what the new bill will look, but Waxman told the AP he doesn’t expect it to stretch for a full five years. He didn’t how much the tobacco tax would be increased to help pay for the expansion. Prior bills raised the tobacco tax by 61 cents, to $1 a pack.

“We’ll be done soon,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the AP.

Photo of the Capitol Dome by

Obama Aims to Help Patients Wipe Away Medical DebtsToday

Barack Obama wants to make it easier for patients facing bankruptcy because of medical bills to eliminate those debts.

A bullet point within his economic agenda says:

Obama and Biden will create an exemption in bankruptcy law for individuals who can prove they filed for bankruptcy because of medical expenses. This exemption will create a process that forgives the debt and lets the individuals get back on their feet.

We put in a call to Melissa Jacoby, a professor at the University of North Carolina’s law school who has done research on medical debt and bankruptcy. She told us Obama’s proposal looks like a reaction to revisions of bankruptcy law a few years back that made it tougher for some consumers to eliminate their debts under bankruptcy.

Those revisions “were geared toward people who had been irresponsible spenders,” Jacoby said. “People with serious medical problems do not fit that model.”

Medicare Slows Patients’ Pace Toward the ‘Doughnut Hole’Today

Medicare is moving to keep seniors from hitting the notorious “doughnut hole” so fast. That coverage gap leaves patients paying full freight for medicines under the Medicare drug benefit after they and their plans have hit $2,700 in spending on drugs for the year.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it’s changing the way patients’ drug spending is calculated, a move that will mean patients take longer to hit $2,700.

One way to make the calculation is to count the amount that a patient’s insurance company pays the pharmacy-benefit manager for administering drug claims. The PBM is the middleman that negotiates prices with pharmacies and pays them after patients pick up prescriptions.