Associated Press (AP) news and information

The nation's most active death-penalty state has turned to a compounding pharmacy to replace its expired execution drugs, according to documents released Wednesday, weeks after Texas prison officials declined to say how they obtained the drugs amid a nationwide shortage.
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Merck & Co. plans to cut another 8,500 jobs as the drugmaker continues its struggle with competition from cheaper generic medications that have squeezed the pharmaceutical industry for several quarters now.
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A conservative challenge to President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law pushed the federal government Monday to the brink of the first partial shutdown in 17 years.
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With new online health insurance exchanges set to launch Tuesday, consumers in many Southern and Plains states will have to look harder for information on how the marketplaces work than their counterparts elsewhere.
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The Senate's top Democrat says his chamber will reject a new House Republican plan to avert a partial government shutdown.
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The House easily approved bipartisan legislation Saturday aimed at improving the safety of drugs produced by compounding pharmacies that mix customized pharmaceuticals.
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Locked in a deepening struggle with President Barack Obama, House Republicans demanded a one-year delay in major parts of the nation's new healthcare law and permanent repeal of a tax on medical devices Saturday as the price for preventing a partial government shutdown threatened for early Tuesday.
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More than a dozen women's healthcare providers in Texas sued the state Friday, attempting to block as unconstitutional key provisions of a strict new abortion law that drew massive protests and threw the Legislature into chaos before it was approved this summer.
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Massachusetts finds itself in a unique position as states gear up to launch new insurance marketplaces under President Barack Obama's healthcare law.
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A Cleveland doctor is facing fraud charges after federal prosecutors accused him of getting $7.5 million in Medicare reimbursements for more than 17,000 Botox injections he allegedly never gave.
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