Daily News

The Washington State Supreme Court is pushing back the due date for the state's Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) reply brief in the ongoing legal battle over Washington's ergonomics standard.

This past November, Washington Employers Concerned About Regulating Ergonomics (WE CARE) appealed a July Thurston County Superior Court ruling that upheld the L&I ergonomics rule. In the decision, the court found that the state had the authority to promulgate an ergonomics standard and used the best available science to do so.

Although FDA's biologics center will technically retain overall responsibility for therapeutic vaccines, the drug center will play a joint role in regulating these products, according to an email by Commissioner Mark McClellan unveiling the second phase of agency's reorganization plan. McClellan directs the biologics center to fully coordinate its review of therapeutic vaccines with the drug center, and asks the two centers to craft a plan to conduct and pay for these consultations.

Attacking the European Union as anti-technology, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Jan. 9 the United States should launch a case in the World Trade Organization against the EU's moratorium on approving new genetically engineered crops in the near future. But he said he couldn't say if a decision on whether to bring such a case would be made within the month, or whether there would be a cabinet-level meeting this month to discuss the issue.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) "has a few reservations" about recently introduced legislation that would overturn CMS' physician payment regulation, according to a committee aide. But sources say that the Energy and Commerce Committee informed the American Medical Association (AMA) last night that it will likely endorse Rep. Bill Thomas' (R-CA) legislation.

FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is scrapping plans to publish a proposed rule that would require animal drug manufacturers to gather data on antibiotic use in food animals, according to FDA's semi-annual regulatory agenda. The agency suggests that the proposal has been put on the backburner because of possible difficulties in getting the rule past the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and a desire to instead focus on the recent antibiotic resistance guidance.

OSHA today (Jan. 8) extended the comment period for its plan to eliminate or revise provisions in 23 health standards, following through on a pledge to organized labor it would give stakeholders an extra 30 days to file comments on the standards improvement project, according to a key source.

The deadline for stakeholders to submit comments officially ended Dec. 30, 2002, but OSHA announced in a Jan. 8 Federal Register notice that it will accept comments until Jan. 30.

National health care spending rose 8.7 percent to $1.4 trillion in 2001 -- the largest jump in a decade, according to a new federal report. It is the fifth consecutive increase in annual health care spending.

Released today (Jan. 8), the CMS report states that an increase in the quantity and intensity of health care services used, particularly hospital services and prescription drugs, coupled with steady price increases contributed to the acceleration.

The future of therapeutic cloning is growing dim as Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN), who supports banning therapeutic cloning, becomes the Senate majority leader. A biotechnology industry source says the recent announcement by a religious sect claiming -- without evidence -- that they have cloned a human likely will spur Frist to take up legislation by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) that would do away with all cloning.