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Republicans Introduce Health Reform Plan That Would Provide Tax Credits To Purchase Health Coverage, Establish State Insurance Exchanges
Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Reps. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday introduced the Patients" Choice Act (S 1099, HR 2520), a counter proposal to Democratic health care reform plans that would create state-based health insurance exchanges and provide U.S. residents tax credits to subsidize coverage premiums, Roll Call reports (Drucker [1], Roll Call, 5/20). The act would require states to separately establish health insurance exchanges made up of private health insurers through which individuals could pick their coverage. The legislation would provide $5,700 in tax credits to families and $2,200 in tax credits to individuals to subsidize coverage premiums, the Washington Times reports (Washington Times, 5/21). An additional $5,000 tax credit would be provided to low-income families (Budoff Brown, Politico, 5/20). The credits would be funded by taxing employer-provided health benefits (Washington Times, 5/21). Under the plan, states would be allowed to shift state residents covered by Medicaid into private coverage (Wayne, CQ Today, 5/20). The measure also would establish a system of health coverage auto-enrollment at emergency departments, motor vehicle departments and through employers (Politico, 5/20). The plan does not establish any new government health care programs (Drucker [1], Roll Call, 5/20). According to Politico, the bill"s sponsors hope to achieve universal coverage for U.S. residents (Politico, 5/20). According to the bill"s sponsors, the plan is budget neutral (Drucker [1], Roll Call, 5/20). Prospects

Preserving Patient Access To Primary Care Act Of 2009 Endorsed By American College Of Physicians
The 128,000-member American College of Physicians (ACP) has endorsed the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act of 2009 (H.R. 2350), introduced by Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA). "Primary care is the best medicine for better health and lower costs," ACP noted, "and this is the best medicine for curing the growing crisis in primary care."
News of the day
Contur Software Adds Further Chemistry Tools To Web-Based ELN
Contur Software, a leading provider of electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) systems, announced added chemistry functionality in iLabber, the company"s recently launched high-end ELN system available as an online service. Using a software as a service (SaaS) model, Contur Software is making iLabber available to individual researchers and smaller R&D organizations that previously have not been able to utilize the advantages of high-end ELN systems due to investments in hardware, licenses and maintenance.
Public Health

Mac Researchers Find "surprising Link" Leads Towards A New Antibiotic

As the best drugs become increasingly resistant to superbugs, McMaster University researchers have discovered a completely different way of looking for a new antibiotic. In a paper to be published published Friday, May 29 in the journal Chemistry and Biology, with colleagues in Germany and Wilfrid Laurier University, they report on work with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, the leading cause of infections in hospitals and the second most common community-acquired infection. Fewer and fewer antibiotics are effective against this bacteria. Cell wall-active antibiotics, such as penicillin, kill bacteria by blocking production of the cell wall. The researchers provide new evidence for genetic connections among three processes in the cell wall - teichoic acid, peptidoglycan and poly-isoprenoid synthesis. "Never before has such a profound link been drawn between these biosynthetic pathways supported by genetic, computational and biochemical evidence," they said in their paper. "We found a connection that perhaps no one expected in the way the cell wall synthesis is wired," said lead author Eric Brown, professor and chair of the department of biochemistry and biomedical sciences in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. "We found they are inextricably linked in their genetics and biochemistry," he said. "Along the way in this study, we have built a system that is ripe for being exploited as a way to search for small molecule drugs that would target these processes." Potentially, he said, this may lead to the development of a new antibiotic. Brown said the current arsenal of antibiotics was developed during the golden age of antibiotic drug discovery from 1930 to 1960, and then development stopped. Research began again in earnest, he said, when troublesome strains of hospital and community-acquired infections began to emerge, such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). "Since the 1960s, drug companies have for, the most part, been tweaking existing molecules, such as building better penicillin with minor changes to the original scaffold. But, you are not very far away from resistance when all you do is a little tweak." The discovery of a "surprising link" between the three processes involved in cell wall synthesis lets researchers build a method of looking for molecules that will disturb the balance between them. "It offers a completely different way of looking for a new antibiotic that would be active against the cell wall," Brown said. McMaster University


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