In the past decade, baseball has experienced a data-driven information revolution. Numbers-crunchers now routinely use statistics to put better teams on the field for less money. Our overpriced, underperforming health care system needs a similar revolution...

Remarkably, a doctor today can get more data on the starting third baseman on his fantasy baseball team than on the effectiveness of life-and-death medical procedures. Studies have shown that most health care is not based on clinical studies of what works best and what does not — be it a test, treatment, drug or technology. Instead, most care is based on informed opinion, personal observation or tradition.

GENEVA, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, today announced that it has submitted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for a new indication of GONAL-f(R) / GONALEF(R) (follitropin alfa for injection) for ovulation induction in infertile women. The sNDA submission is supported by a Phase III single-blinded controlled study conducted in Japanese women with no or irregular ovulation (anovulation or oligoovulation), including Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, which demonstrated the efficacy and safety of GONAL-f(R).

SARASOTA, Florida, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

CPC of America, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CPCF), a company focused on developing therapeutic devices for use in endovascular procedures, announced today that it has entered into a manufacturing agreement with BC Tech. According to the agreement, BC Tech will manufacture the MedClose(TM) vascular closure system (VCS), a Class II extravascular puncture-closure device that may be used with a biological sealant for worldwide commercial application in diagnostic and interventional cardiovascular procedures. The Company aims to fill a global market need for a safe, reliable closure system that reduces time to hemostasis and allows for faster patient ambulation and, when necessary, wound re-access.

PARIS, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- GenOdyssee Has Received Notice of Allowance of European Patent Application Covering Its Core Natural Evolution Technology Invented in 2002, and Received Broad Product Applications Protection Rights to All Cytokine Families

GenOdyssee (GO), a biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of improved 'next generation' human protein therapeutics, announced today that it has received notice of allowance from the European Patent Office of its Patent Application no.3 785 733.1 (PCT/EP03/13965) covering its core founding drug discovery technology process entitled Method For Providing Natural Therapeutic Agents With High Therapeutic Index for applications to all therapeutic cytokine families.

LONDON, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Unite the Union has Crunch Meeting With Strategic Health Authority on 27 October

Creeping privatisation of the NHS - with knock-on adverse effects for patients - is on the march in the Greater Manchester area, Unite, the country's largest union, has warned.

Unite, along with other health unions, plan to meet NHS North West, the strategic health authority, at Gateway House in Manchester on Monday, 27 October to thrash out the implications of the continuing privatisation process in the region.

Unite is protesting at the latest private health scheme in Stretford, given permission by Trafford Council last month.

LONDON, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Welcoming the announcement today from the government that more women and carers will be able to take action to ensure they receive the full state pension, Diana Holland, Assistant General Secretary of the TG section of Unite the union said:

For too long, too few women have been able to receive a full state pension. Caring responsibilities, part-time working and unequal and low pay have all resulted in further disadvantage on retirement.

The state pension is about solidarity between generations. Today's announcement recognises the vital contribution to our society made by so many women in previous generations and today. This is an important step on the road to dignity in retirement for all.

PARIS, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Novexel, a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel antibiotics designed to overcome the significant global problem of microbial resistance, announces that its pipeline will be the subject of five posters at the joint annual meeting of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and the Infectious Disease Society of America (48th annual ICAAC/IDSA 46th annual meeting), which takes place in Washington, DC, October 25-28, 2008.

LONDON, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- VocaLink, the payment transaction specialist, and BankGiroCentralen (BGC), the Swedish Automated Clearing House (ACH), have won the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) Award for Innovation in Outsourcing. The award has been given in recognition of the groundbreaking clearing and settlement business model that was developed to outsource the processing of Sweden's automated payments to VocaLink. The deal represented the first time the processing for a national payments scheme has been transferred to a non- domestic player.

BERLIN, October 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Electronic books, super sharp flat-screen TVs, and printed solar cells are all being produced in Germany, helping to make the German printed electronics industry a world leader in innovation and product development: Excellence and innovation in the field of printed electronics will be honored at this year's Global Plastic Electronics conference in Berlin, running from October 27-29, when the Plastic Electronics Foundation presents its Awards for Innovation.

CAMBRIDGE, England, October 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Technology In-Licensed by Stem Cell Sciences From University of Cambridge

- (Stem Cell Sciences, SCS, the Company)