Duke in the News: March 14, 2003

FDA Approves AIDS Drug | House Acts to Limit Malpractice Awards | FDA Proposes Putting Bar Code on Drugs, and more ...

By Blake Dickinson

Friday, March 14, 2003

FDA APPROVES AIDS DRUG
(Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer, Mar. 14 -- Fuzeon, the first-of-its-kind AIDS drug that was discovered at Duke University and developed over 10 years by Triangle-based Trimeris, has been approved for patients by the Food and Drug Administration. ... Full story

HOUSE ACTS TO LIMIT MALPRACTICE AWARDS
New York Times, March 14 -- The U.S. House passed legislation Thursday imposing a $250,000 limit on jury awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases. Several prominent Senate Republicans have said they want an exception for egregious cases, like the one involving Jéca Santilláat Duke and her mismatched organ transplant. ...Full story

FDA PROPOSES PUTTING BAR CODES ON DRUGS
New York Times, March 13 -- Medications given in the hospital would carry a supermarket-style bar code under a new Food and Drug Administration proposal aimed at addressing heightened medical error concerns. ... Full story

A GREAT DUMB IDEA
WTVD News, March 13 -- It was a DUMB idea: Record a CD of Duke's Pep Band songs. D-U-M-B all right ... as in the acronym for Duke University Marching Band. ... Full story

NO PAY, JUST BENEFITS
(Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer, March 14 -- Steve Coombs, a Durham resident who works at Duke University Medical Center, joins 20 or 30 other members of the Piedmont Appalachian Trail Hikers club several weekends a year to work on 58 miles of the trail in Virginia. ... Full story

ARIA DREAMS
(Conway, Ark.) Log Cabin Democrat, March 12 -- Susan Dunn took a brief break from her faculty work leading Duke's vocal program recently to perform operatic arias at her alma mater, Hendrix College. ..Full story