GlobeRx.com Inc. facilitates pharmaceutical procurement for health care institutions and organizations in second and third world countries. md2patient.com Inc.'s web portal will offer reliable content and customized web pages for physicians as well as practice management capabilities. MedCases Inc. is developing interactive medical education products for physicians and other healthcare professionals. MedManage Systems Inc.'s lead products, MedSample and eMedSample, offer pharmaceutical companies alternatives to providing free drug samples for patients. PharmasMarket.com Inc. consolidates the products of over 1,000 pharmaceutical manufacturers in an online catalog, markets them directly to health care providers.

From device companies that merged to drug companies that didn't, big drugs that paid off big and small-cap stocks that paid off small, 1998 was a newshound's delight in the health care products industry. Here's a baker's dozen of the top news stories in health care in 1998.

Recently, the PPM industry seems to have collapsed under the weight of the perhaps inherently contradictory nature of PPMs: how can a health care maintenance organization contain costs when it is made up of the very individuals who feel obligated to make treatment decisions without regard to expense? Start-Up looks at recent PPM IPOs.

There was a time when managed care tried to control drug spending through strategies that compromised physician prerogative. But growing consumerism and the healthy US economy has led to questioning of managed care practices. New physician-driven organizations are looking at drug costs as part of a broader disease management agenda, while PBMs are taking a more doctor-friendly approach.