pharmaceutical

Digital 'pill' tells doctors when you've swallowed it

If you're not afraid to swallow your technology, you may want to check out new tech cleared by the Food and Drug Administration this week that lets you ingest a digital sensor powered by stomach acid that alerts your doctors about your health and your treatment habits.

The technology consists of a tiny, silicon-based sensor that, at 1mm wide (roughly the size of a grain of sand), can be consumed via pills and pharmaceuticals and pass through the body much like high-fiber food.

According to the developer, Proteus Digital Health, once the sensor is swallowed, stomach fluids that come into contact with it provide enough power to relay a signal that documents exactly when it was taken. This data is transmitted to a battery-powered patch worn on the skin that detects the signal and records the exact time the sensor was swallowed.… Read more

Will the FDA regulate social media? (Q&A)

ASPEN, Colo.--The U.S. Food and Drug Administration started to discuss possible Internet regulations at an event it convened in 1996. Fifteen years later, the pharmaceutical industry is still waiting for an outcome.

A blog post from the Public Relations Society of America last week complained that "it's time for the FDA to act and to properly advise" pharmaceutical manufacturers about what kind of advertising is and isn't allowed, especially on social-networking sites. PhRMA, a trade association representing pharmaceutical makers, said this month that "we continue to wait for FDA's guidance, and to … Read more

AT&T launches health care business

AT&T is making a new foray into the health care market with a business geared toward improving patient care and trimming medical costs.

Announced today, the new AT&T ForHealth unit will deliver a range of wireless, networked, and cloud-based products to doctors, hospitals, insurers, and pharmaceutical companies. The goal is to push the adoption of new technologies to the industry as the country tries to switch over to electronic and digital health care management.

AT&T said it's looking to expand upon some of its current health care projects, which include medicine bottles that … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 922: Hot and junky

Brian Cooley aptly describes YouTube as hot and junky video today. And that, my friends, is why the president has moved his video off YouTube and is hosting the player himself. Meanwhile, we get a few more jabs in at the Authors Guild/Kindle controversy, and Cooley rants about space. Parking space.

Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 922

Square Root Day revelers to party like it’s 3/3/09 http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10186121-76.html

Apple tweaks desktops http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10186472-37.html http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/03/apple-releases-trio-of-long-awaited-desktops.ars

Roku box adds Amazon … Read more

AP: Drugs in your drinking water

We take it for granted, mostly, that the water that comes into our homes is safe to consume. Sure, we may run the tap for 30 seconds or so to clear out rusty sediment or traces of lead, and every once in a while there's an E. coli scare. Many of us, too, filter the water, either at the tap or in a container for the fridge.

But now there's something new to worry about. After an in-depth, five-month investigation, the Associated Press is reporting that the supply of drinking water in many U.S. metropolitan areas--accessible to … Read more

Open sourcing pharmaceuticals

If there's any industry that likely thinks itself immune from open source, it's the pharmaceutical industry. Laden with heavy research and development costs, how can the industry essentially give away its products and still earn a decent return?

A new organization, Farmavita.net, thinks that it can be done. The goal is to free up all the intellectual property that isn't actively being used by pharmaceutical organizations:

Farmavita.Net has recently started the project named "Farmavita.Net - Open Source Pharmaceuticals". The project is targeted to development of sharing of know-how for manufacture of essential and life saving medicines. It is mainly dedicated to the countries with less developed economies where local pharmaceutical production is insufficient for national needs.… Read more