Health Care Prescription for Your Portfolio

 Highlight transcript below to create clipTranscript:  Print  |  Email Go  Click text to jump within videoWed 26 Dec 12 | 06:40 AM ET CNBC's Bertha Coombs reports on what's in store for the health care sector in 2013; and Les Funtleyder, Poliwogg fund manager, shares his top health care picks for next year.

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House prepares three 'milk cliff' bills

House leaders have prepared three bills to deal with the looming "milk cliff" for floor action this week.

The three bills are aimed at preventing a spike in dairy prices looming in the new year. 

Because Congress has failed to renew farm programs, an underlying 1949 law is slated to kick in. This would force the government to buy up American milk at inflated prices and the purchases are expected to possibly double the price of milk at the grocery store as supplies dwindle.

Late Saturday night, House Republicans posted the three bills on the House Rules Committee website, setting up possible Monday votes under layover procedures put in place in this Congress.

One bill would extend the expired 2008 farm bill, which expired Sept. 30, for one year. The second would provide for a farm-bill extension through January and a third would just extend dairy programs through January.

"Clearly, it is no longer possible to enact a five-year farm bill in this Congress.  Given this reality, the responsible thing to do – and the course of action I have long encouraged if a five-year bill was not possible – is to extend the 2008 legislation for one year. This provides certainty to our producers and critical disaster assistance to those affected by record drought conditions," said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) in a Sunday statement. 

"The legislation posted is the result of discussions with Ranking Member [Collin] Peterson [D-Minn.] and my colleagues in the Senate.  It is not perfect – no compromise ever is – but it is my sincere hope that it will pass the House and Senate and be signed by the President by January 1," he added.

The first bill abolishes existing dairy price supports in favor of a reformed system included in House and Senate draft farm bills that failed to pass both houses this year. The new dairy system is aimed at guaranteeing profit margins rather than supporting prices and is favored by milk producers who argue that the rising cost of inputs like feed makes the existing system too weak for dairy farmers.

The dairy changes may face significant opposition in the House. This summer Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), long a farm bill skeptic, described existing dairy programs as "Soviet-style." The changes may be key to getting House Agriculture Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and other rural Democrats to support a one-year extension, however. Peterson was instrumental in killing a one-year extension when House leaders tried to pass one in July.

Peterson instead favored a five-year bill that appears all-but-dead in this Congress. 

"These reforms are the primary reason that I am even willing to consider any extension." Peterson said Sunday, regarding the dairy program changes.

The Senate passed such a bill, as did the House Agriculture Committee, but the House never brought it to the floor. The House 2012 farm bill faced opposition from conservatives opposed to farm subsidies and liberals opposed to the $16 billion in cuts to food stamps contained in the House bill. 

On Friday, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) revealed to reporters that she was bowing to reality and working on a 2008 farm bill extension instead of continuing to push for a five-year bill to be included in a "fiscal cliff" grand bargain.

Lucas and Stabenow had hoped that the $23 billion to $35 billion in deficit savings in their farm bills could have been used as part of a broad debt deal to avoid the $500 billion in tax increases and spending cuts looming in January. It now appears that a mini-deal on the fiscal cliff focused only on turning off some of the tax increases will appear this week. 

“If a new farm bill is not passed in the next few days, Agriculture Committee leaders in both chambers and both parties have developed a responsible short-term farm bill extension that not only stops milk prices from spiking, but also prevents eventual damage to our entire agriculture economy. It is critical that we pass a five-year farm bill that gives farmers and ranchers the certainty they need to plan for the future. If a new farm bill doesn’t pass this Congress we’ll soon hold another mark-up and just keep working until one is enacted next year," Statebnow said in a statement Sunday.

Updated at 5:54 p.m.

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Sen. Durbin sees ‘chasm’ in fiscal talks

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday there is still a "chasm" at the heart of talks to reach a deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” as the year-end deadline approaches.

"There still is a chasm there," Durbin said on CBS's Face the Nation. "There's work to be done and not much time left."

But Durbin sounded a tone of optimism in terms of striking a deal in the next two days.    

"I've been around Washington long enough to know that it takes a deadline, it takes a lot of sweat and a lot of worry," Durbin said. "And people reach a point where they finally say, 'Alright, let's try to find the way through this.'"

"It’s happened before," he added. "It can happen again." 

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who also appeared on the program agreed that both sides are "far apart."

"I don't think anybody knows what's going to happen," he said. 

But Coburn added, "The odds are that we have not seen the leadership on either side of the aisle to solve this problem and why would we think that we're gonna see the leadership in the next 24 hours to solve the problem?"

Coburn said while there are "a lot of disadvantages" with going over the fiscal cliff, there are also some advantages. 

"One of the advantages will be that the American people are going to see what the real cost of their government is -- the actual real cost -- for both the very wealthy. The very, very low will have minimal impact on them, it's about $200 a year," Coburn added.

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Bristol Myers, Pfizer's Anti-Clotting Drug Gets FDA Approval

U.S. health regulators approved clot -revention drug Eliquis, developed by Bristol Myers-Squibb and Pfizer, for treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeats.

The drug, also known as apixaban, was approved by European health regulators last month.

Eliquis belongs to a new class of medicines designed to replace decades-old warfarin for preventing blood clots in heart patients, or after a hip- or knee-replacement surgery.

Eliquis would compete against approved blood-clot preventers such as Xarelto from Johnson & Johnson and Bayer, and Pradaxa from Boehringer Ingelheim.

Treating atrial fibrillation, which greatly raises the risk of strokes, is considered by far the largest and most important use for these new drugs.

The oral tablet Eliquis, like Xarelto, works by inhibiting a protein called Factor Xa that plays a critical role in blood clotting. Pradaxa has a slightly different mechanism of action.

However, Eliquis should not be taken by patients with prosthetic heart valves or those with atrial fibrillation caused by a heart valve problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.

About 5.8 million people in the United States suffer from atrial fibrillation, the most common form of heart arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat.

Bristol-Myers shares were up 2 percent at $32.48 and Pfizer shares were up 10 cents at $24.99 in extended trading Friday.

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DaVita May Profit From Obamacare Boost: Pro

The Stocks to Benefit From Healthcare Reforms Martin Brunninger, head of Medtech at Nomura tells CNBC what stocks could benefit from President Obama's proposed reforms for US healthcare.

"We have 70 percent of the dialysis care market dominated by two big players, so we have efficiency gains and there's not much more earnings power in the U.S. sector," said Brunninger.

"However moving a bit away from dialysis care, DaVita has diversified away and they have a broader approach now in saving managed dollars for broader patient populations," he added. "I think that is the future."

Last week, Nomura raised DaVita to a "buy" from "neutral," and hiked its price target to $120.

Beginning in 2014, the Obama administration is preparing for an estimated 30 million people to take advantage of its signature health care law. Health care companies are preparing to absorb the countless billions of dollars that will be spent on insurance for lower-income patients.

DaVita, Brunninger said, may become part of the more bullish outlook for health care stocks.

"It's all about changing the structure in the U.S. health care system," he said, adding that most health care systems around the world were moving toward lower spending on an increased population.

"It doesn't necessarily mean the quality needs to be diminished. But it's just about management and where the profits are going," he added.

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UPDATE 1-FDA closer to approving biotech salmon, critics furious

* FDA to take comments for 60 days before giving final OK

* Critics seek action from Congress, threaten to sue

Dec 21 (Reuters) - A controversial genetically engineered salmon has moved a step closer to the consumer's dining table after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday the fish didn't appear likely to pose a threat to the environment or to humans who eat it.

AquAdvantage salmon eggs would produce fish with the potential to grow to market size in half the time of conventional salmon. If it gets a final go-ahead, it would be the first food from a transgenic animal - one whose genome has been altered - to be approved by the FDA.

The AquAdvantage Atlantic salmon egg was developed by AquaBounty Technology to speed up production to meet global seafood demand.

In a draft environmental assessment, the FDA affirmed earlier findings that the biotech salmon was not likely to be harmful. It said it would take comments from the public on its report for 60 days before making a final decision on approval.

"With respect to food safety, FDA has concluded that food from AquAdvantage salmon is as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon, and that there is a reasonable certainty of no harm from consumption," the FDA assessment states.

AquaBounty officials said they were caught by surprise by the news that its product was a step closer to approval as years of controversy had followed the company's application for a go-ahead from the regulator. They said they did not know the timing or details of the process the FDA will follow following the 60-day comment period.

"We are encouraged that the environmental assessment is being released and hope the government continues the science-based regulatory process," said AquaBounty Chief Executive Ronald Stotish.

Critics say the new salmon is a "dangerous experiment" and have pressured the FDA to reject it. They say the FDA has relied on outdated science and substandard methods for assessing the new fish.

"We are deeply concerned that the potential of these fish to cause allergic reactions has not been adequately researched," said Michael Hansen, a scientist at the Consumers Union. "FDA has allowed this fish to move forward based on tests of allergenicity of only six engineered fish, tests that actually did show an increase in allergy-causing potential."

There were also concerns the FDA would not require the genetically modified salmon to be labeled as such, and some critics said they may file a lawsuit to prevent what they fear could be the imminent approval of the engineered fish.

"Congress can still keep FDA from unleashing this dangerous experiment," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group. "Although this latest FDA decision is a blow to consumer confidence, we encourage everyone to contact their members of Congress and demand this reckless decision be overturned."

The Center for Food Safety, another non-profit consumer protection group, was highly critical of the FDA report, and officials said they might sue the regulator over the issue.

"It is extremely disappointing that the Obama Administration continues to push approval of this dangerous and unnecessary product," said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. "The GE salmon has no socially redeeming value. It's bad for the consumer, bad for the salmon industry and bad for the environment."

FDA spokeswoman Morgan Liscinsky said no final decisions have been made on labeling or on the application for approval.

"The release of these materials is not a decision on whether food from AquAdvantage Salmon requires additional labeling; nor is it a decision on the new animal drug application currently under review. It also does not provide a final food safety determination," Liscinsky said.

The AquAdvantage salmon would be an all-female population with eggs produced in a facility on Prince Edward Island in Canada and shipped to a "grow-out facility" in Panama, where they would be reared to market size and harvested for processing.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum; and Peter Galloway)

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Rep. Van Hollen: Better than '50-50 chance' of deal before midnight

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) estimates there's a better than even chance that Congress will find a "fiscal cliff" agreement just ahead of the midnight deadline on Monday.

"I think there is some good news. I mean the conversations continued late into the night. I think now there's a better than 50-50 chance that we will avoid the fiscal cliff by midnight tonight," Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said Monday morning on CNN's "Starting Point."

But the window for legislators to prevent the looming spending cuts and tax-rate increases is closing fast.

On Sunday, the parties raced to finalize a deal, as Republicans dropped a demand to reduce Social Security benefits and Democrats showed flexibility on tax rates. But both sides are still split on the estate tax and how to pay for offsetting the sequester.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Biden continued negotiations late into the night, according to the senator’s office.

Like Van Hollen, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) made a similar prediction on Sunday saying that chances are "a little higher" than 50-50 that legislators would reach a deal. 

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