Pharmacies

ST. GEORGE -- Authorities are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a suspect in a string of pharmacy robberies in St. George.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Christopher Patterson, co-owner of High Street Pharmacy in Oakland, Calif., didn't panic when two young thieves in masks walked in last month and pointed a gun at him. He and his staff simply gave them what they wanted: the store's entire supply of a prescription narcotic cough syrup that that sells for up to $200 a bottle on the street.

OGDEN -- Police say a man stole prescription pain medication from Wasatch Pharmacy Care at 4387 Harrison Blvd. on Friday.

According to police reports, the Caucasian man, who is described as between 25 and 30, walked into the pharmacy at 5 p.m. and demanded the drugs, saying he had a gun.

But Ogden Duty Lt. Shawn Hamblin said no gun was actually seen.

CLINTON -- Melissa McGrath wasn't planning to become a pharmacy technician, but Tim Morris is glad she did.

Morris was having trouble with his insurance company over the price of a medication, along with other issues, when McGrath came to his rescue.

MILWAUKEE -- Over the last decade, a small group of prominent surgeons from around the country has been enlisted by medical device-maker Medtronic to do clinical research or write articles about the company's new spine surgery product.

In 2010 alone, many of those doctors received payments of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars each in royalties for a variety of other Medtronic spinal devices, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of recently released company payments. Medtronic began disclosing the payments last year, in advance of a federal requirement set to take effect in 2013.

Since it won approval for narrow uses in 2002, the product -- bone morphogenetic protein-2, known as BMP-2 -- has been an increasingly dominant force in spinal fusion surgery, with sales of about $800 million a year, often for use in other procedures.

Independent doctors say the product's success is due largely to positive findings made by the surgeons affiliated with the company.