Here are some of the stories that were tops at MedCity News this week:
— Cleveland Clinic executives told employees Tuesday morning that the health system is planning to eliminate about 200 jobs. Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil placed the number of jobs cuts at “under 200. We are consolidating services, and with that comes some minimal job impact,” noting the Clinic employs 43,000 people.
— Insys Therapeutics, a Phoenix-based drug development company focused on pain and oncology, swallowed Chicago-area biopharmaceutical developer NeoPharm Inc. (OTC:NEOL.PK) through a reverse merger worth an initial $135 million in stock. Shareholders of privately owned Insys ended up with 95 percent of NeoPharm’s stock through the deal closed on Nov. 8, Lake Bluff, Illinois-based NeoPharm said.
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— I want the iPad but can’t afford it. Then I realized I don’t need more money… I just need to work at Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT). The medical device maker based in Fridley, Minnesota, recently bought 4,500 iPads for its employees, mostly for showing product information to doctors and hospitals.
— I’ve devoted plenty of Internet ink to the diverging fortunes of St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ) and Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE:BSX). Apparently other people see the same thing. Let’s start with St. Jude, based in Little Canada, Minnesota. The company has been on a nice run lately with impressive sales gains, successful product introductions and high profile acquisitions. Boston Scientific, on the other hand, is “destroying shareholder value,” in the words of one analyst.
— It hasn’t attracted much attention yet, but a case making its way through federal court to a sure-fire date with the U.S. Supreme Court could obliterate the business models of biotech companies across the country. The case, which pits the American Civil Liberties Union against Myriad Genetics & Laboratories, concerns whether Myriad can hold patents over two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, which the company uses to diagnose women with ovarian and breast cancer.
