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Can you stop Alzheimer’s disease in the brain? New research suggests yes (Morning Read)

Current medical news from today, including latest Alzheimer's research suggests the disease can be blocked in the brain, AstraZeneca scales back workforce and neuroscience program, and safety net hospitals post on-par ED length of stay times.

By Deanna Pogorelc on February 02, 2012

Current medical news and unique business news for anyone who cares about healthcare.

The latest Alzheimer’s research. Alzheimer’s spreads like an infection in the brain, by way of a distorted protein called tau, according to new research out of Columbia and Harvard. Two mice studies indicate that it may be possible to stop Alzheimer’s disease with an antibody that blocks tau to prevent neuron-to-neuron transmission of the disease. Researchers suspect that other degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s develop and could be blocked in a similar way.

AZN scales back on neuroscience. AstraZeneca will cut 7,300 people from its workforce, including 2,200 from its R&D staff, amid a drop in profits and a weak late-stage pipeline. The company said it will cut back in neuroscience, Part of a broader reorganization that will eliminate 7,300 jobs, AstraZeneca says that it will cut way back on neuroscience and close down facilities in Sweden and Canada. The pharma company has two late-stage neuro projects under way and nine more in early- and mid-stage trials.

Safety net hospitals. Despite concerns about safety-net institutions, there appears to be little difference in a patient’s length of stay in a safety net versus non-safety net emergency department. “Although concerns have been raised that performance measures, particularly those linked to payment, may ultimately penalize safety-net institutions that are already underfunded and that care for a disproportionate volume of patients with poorer health care status, our findings suggest that those concerns about ED length of stay will not penalize safety-net institutions,” the authors say.

Omnicare’s PharMerica acquisition blocked. Omnicare’s hostile takeover of long-term pharmacy care service PharMerica was blocked last week by the Federal Trade Commission, which said that an acquisition would have given Omnicare nearly 60 percent of the licensed skilled nursing facility beds in the U.S. Pharmerica stocks fell 11 percent, the biggest single-day decline in three months, upon the announcement.

PA docs can be sued for emotional distress. Doctors can be sued for inflicting emotional distress, even in the absence of physical negligence, according to a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision. A a claim of infliction of emotional distress was filed in 2005 by a woman whose doctor did not reveal that her baby had physical abnormalities after an ultrasound, leaving her shocked and distressed when the baby was born.