Today's Globe: biotech chief mum, anesthesia awareness on film, measles, salt, cancer on the night shift, Medicare oxygen

For biotech executives, one of the hottest issues in Massachusetts is Governor Deval L. Patrick's $1 billion life sciences initiative, which would provide tax breaks and research to bolster the industry. But Robert K. Coughlin (left), the new president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, said he won't discuss the bill at all. As a former state employee, he is muzzled by lobbying restrictions.

The film doesn't open until today, but for weeks patients have been peppering anesthesiologists with the same question: "Will I wake up during my surgery?" The source of these worries is the psychological thriller "Awake," which depicts a patient who regains consciousness during a heart transplant; the patient is in agony but is unable to say anything.

Aggressive prevention campaigns in Africa over the past seven years have helped the continent shed the measles scourge, whose center has now shifted to South Asia.

US regulators should limit salt in foods to combat high blood pressure among Americans, according to a consumer group and the American Medical Association.

Like UV rays and diesel exhaust fumes, working the graveyard shift will soon be listed as a "probable" cause of cancer.

Medicare spends billions of dollars each year on products and services such as oxygen that are available at far lower prices from retail pharmacies and online stores, according to an analysis of federal data by The New York Times.