Effective Jan. 1, 2010, Oregon insurers will be forced to cover $500 for members toward medications or quit-smoking courses.

With a global value of around $22 billion in 2008 – and the leading drug class in the US – the commercial opportunity for antipsychotics is considerable. According to independent market analyst Datamonitor, the novel and reformulated pipeline atypical antipsychotics will be the engine that drives the growth potential of this developed market forward.

In a white paper released today by Ernst Berndt and Mark Trusheim of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, research shows that eliminating FDA's preemption protection would decrease patients' access to life-enhancing medical devices, increase health care costs and reduce medical device industry employment

The following is being issued by Coast IRB: In a press release issued on March 10, 2009, Coast IRB informed the public that it had discovered what appeared to be a fraudulent clinical trial submitted to that Independent review board for evaluation. Coast IRB has since learned that the fraudulent trial was apparently commenced as part of a congressional "sting" operation. Apparently at the behest of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, agents submitted false credentials and clinical trial data to Coast IRB and possibly other IRBs to induce them to perform reviews. Evidence of the progress of the trials could then form the basis for arguments critical of the FDA and in favor of greater regulatory oversight. Unless pursuant to a court order or under the auspices of the Department of Justice, the sting could be illegal, violating wire fraud, mail fraud, and state laws against fraud and false credentialing.