A few highlights from the news in our industry…
Pharma’s Secret Weapon to Keep Drug Prices High READ
“Familiar to only a few people inside the insular world of intellectual property law, secondary patents work like this: Companies file for additional, defensive patents to thicken the protection around their original base patents. These additional patents rarely represent anything new in terms of science. Instead, their purpose is to prolong a company’s monopoly and, along with that, its ability to charge high prices for its drugs.”
New smoking age to take effect in California READ
“Beginning Thursday [June 9], smokers have to be at least 21 to buy tobacco products in California. The nation’s most populous state joins Hawaii and more than 100 municipalities in raising the legal smoking age from 18 to 21. Anyone who sells or gives tobacco to people under 21 could be found guilty of a misdemeanor crime.”
Google aims to stop terrifying you with its responses when you search medical symptoms READ
“Even if you’re not a hypochondriac by nature, jumping on Google to do some research when you have a mysterious headache or cough has been enough to make you one. For years both patients and doctors have complained about how hard it is to distinguish between real advice and the random ramblings of a complete quack”
Information provided by David Stott, MedBridge Senior Contracts Consultant.