This Week’s Biotech Highlights

This week in biotech was all about action at a distance. Not the quantum entanglement kind, just the plain old mucking with things indirectly kind.

In a post on recent developments in electronic medical records, two items highlighted a role for remote access: a pilot program by the American Telemedicine Association that is using phone, email and videoconferencing to resolve over 55% of issues without an office visit; and a new pacemaker that transmits data to the doctor and the patient to allow proactive monitoring and planning.

Another phenomenon one step removed — BioMS, having had to abandon its own clinical programs, has decided to invest time and expertise in another development-stage company, Spectral Diagnostics. BioMS is putting about $12 million in, and is getting $3 million back for “clinical, regulatory and capital markets consulting services.” With more money in the bank, this may become BioMS’ new gig.

Even President Obama was dependent on others this week, getting a boost from the Congressional Budget Office to put health care reform over the top. The CBO estimated this week that the Senate health care reform bill would reduce the deficit by $132 billion over the first 10 years.

Still, over at the Cross-Border Biotech Blog, we’re trying to get you all the news a Canadian biotech company needs as directly as possible. And, in the spirit of being direct — Happy Holidays!