Cancer - Big Pharma want to drain you of cash before you die
Avastin, $5,000/month; Zaltrap, $11,000/month; Yervoy, $39,000/month; Provenge, $93,000/course of treatment; Erbitux, $8,400/month; Gleevec, $92,000/year; Tasigna, $115,000/year; Sprycel, $123,000/year.
(Photo: Illustrations by Remie Geoffroi)
http://nymag.com/news/features/cancer-drugs-2013-10/#! (Source: PharmaGossip)
Source: PharmaGossip - October 29, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Pharmalot... Pharmalittle... Good Morning
Hello, folks, and how are you today? The sun is peeking through the clouds hovering over the Pharmalot corporate campus this morning, where the short people are, as usual, hustling off to the school houses, the leaves are blanketing the grounds and the official mascots are chasing down wild animals. Quite a scene. As for us, we are hustling a bit ourselves since we hope to attend an interesting panel later, which will require us to close the laptop for a spell. Nonetheless, we have the usual line up of items for you to peruse. So here you go. Have a grand day and stay in touch...
Reckitt Benckiser Starts A Strategic Review...
Source: Pharmalot - October 22, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
New nanopharmaceutical may help overcome resistance to specific anticancer drugs
Conclusions: Results generated through this translational research plan suggest that CRLX101 can overcome HIF-1α-mediated acquired resistance to antiangiogenic drugs, assisting the use of CRLX101 in combination with antiangiogenic medicines as an exciting new paradigm for the treatment of cancer.
Related Posts:Cleveland Clinic’s preventive breast cancer vaccine…Harvard Stem Cell Institute publishes initial clinical trialImportant advance in the fight against skin cancerNew IBS treatment shows possible in Phase 2 researchNew blood test could help millions of patients with&hellip...
Source: My Irritable Bowel Syndrome Story - October 21, 2013 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Ken Tags: IBS News Source Type: blogs
Pharmalot... Pharmalittle... Good Morning
Good morning, folks, and nice to see you again. We hope the weekend was relaxing and refreshing, because yet another working week has just begun. You knew this would happen, yes? So did we. And to prepare, we have once again brewed a cup of stimulation to help us along. As always, we invite you to join us. After all, there is no shame in getting some assistance to fire up your brain first thing in the morning. Meanwhile, here are some tidbits. Have a grand day and do stay in touch...
Bayer Hires Pfizer's Brandicourt To Run Healthcare Operations (Reuters)
Roche Cancer Drug Shrinks Tumors In 26 Percent Of Smokers (Bloomberg ...
Source: Pharmalot - September 30, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
An Experimental Lilly Cancer Drug Misses A Lucrative Target
In a setback to Eli Lilly, a late-stage study found that a closely watched experimental drug failed to meet its primary endpoint in combating breast cancer. Although expectations on Wall Street had already been low, the compound, called ramucirumab, did not demonstrate progression free survival and also missed a secondary endpoint – overall survival.
The drug, however, did yield a statistically significant benefit for the same endpoints in treating gastric cancer in a separate Phase III trial. Only top-line results from the studies were released (here is the Lilly statement). Nonetheless, the breast cancer findings hinde...
Source: Pharmalot - September 26, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Drugmakers And Pharmacists Sue Maine Over Importation Law
This was predictable. Three months after Maine enacted a law that allows its residents to purchase prescription drugs from mail-order pharmacies in Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Australia, the state is facing a lawsuit and a request for a preliminary injunction from trade groups for drugmakers and state pharmacists and retailers. The law actually goes into effect on October 9.
In their lawsuit, PhRMA, the Maine Pharmacy Association and the Maine Society for Health System Pharmacists, among others, charge that the state law circumvents federal regulations governing prescription drugs, encroaches on the power of the federa...
Source: Pharmalot - September 12, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Rerun: Happy 7th birthday to the Health Business Blog
The Health Business Blog is on vacation and re-running some classic posts. This one is from March 2012, the seventh birthday of the Health Business Blog.
The Health Business Blog turns seven years old today. Continuing a tradition I established with birthdays one, two, three, four, five and six, I have picked out a favorite post from each month. Thanks for continuing to read the blog!
March 2011: Why you shouldn’t feel good about paying a low price for wet AMD treatment
Repackaging Avastin seems like a harmless, clever trick to save thousands on Lucentis. But now that the world has decided that the price poin...
Source: Health Business Blog - August 27, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: dewe67 Tags: Announcements Blogs Source Type: blogs
Rerun: Happy 3rd birthday to the Health Business Blog
The Health Business Blog is on vacation this week and re-running some classic posts. This one is from March 2008, the third birthday of the Health Business Blog.
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The Health Business Blog is three years old, with close to 1700 posts and counting. For the first and second birthdays I picked out my favorite post by month, and I’m continuing that tradition today.
March 2007: Eye-popping generic pricing disparities
Retail prices for a 30 day supply of generic Zocor (simvastatin) ranged from $6.97 at Sam’s Club to $131.99 at Rite Aid. Can you imagine seeing price differentials like that for any other pro...
Source: Health Business Blog - August 20, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: dewe67 Tags: Announcements Blogs Source Type: blogs
Rich pharma companies, poor patients.
Pharmaceutical companies are getting rich on the backs of their patients. Don't believe me? Here's some proof.First we have an article from New Jersey on how Roche's profits are up 10% and its revenues are up 4% on profits from its breast cancer drugs. The company is now focusing on cancer drugs and hopes to find more high profit drugs as generics come available for drugs such as Herceptin. By the way, their cancer drugs cost between $70,000 and $100,000+ annually per patient.If you ask a pharma company you get the standard lines: 'no one pays those prices', 'they are covered by insurance', 'we do have programs for ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - July 28, 2013 Category: Cancer Tags: patient rights medication costs Source Type: blogs
Pharmalot... Pharmalittle... The Weekend Nears
Once again, another working week is about to draw to a close. And not a moment too soon. After a long week of high temperatures, we are ready to daydream about weekend plans. In fact, we are getting a head start, since we are rolling in the sidewalks this morning in order to take a few hours off to spend with Mrs. Pharmalot and one or more short people. We are also looking forward to catching up on some reading, puttering around the official Pharmalot grounds and socializing with other humans. And what about you? Perhaps the great outdoors are beckoning or this is an opportunity to reach out to someone special. You could a...
Source: Pharmalot - July 19, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
NHS could save £84m using cheaper drug to prevent blindness, trial finds
Researchers say Avastin is just as good as more-expensive Lucentis for treating wet age-related macular degenerationAn image of an eye with wet AMD, the most common cause of blindness, diagnosed in 23,000 people in the UK every year. Photograph: Queen's University Belfast/PASarah Boseley, health editorThe NHS could save more than £84m a year if it used a cheap, unlicensed drug to treat people in danger of going blind rather than the expensive one currently licensed and promoted by leading pharmaceutical companies for the purpose, a ground-breaking trial has shown.Researchers led by Prof Usha Chakravarthy from Queen's Univ...
Source: PharmaGossip - July 19, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Phony Baloney? Counterfeit Avastin Salesman Is Spared Jail Time
For all the ruckus generated by the fake Avastin controversy last year, federal prosecutors late last week failed to obtain a one-year prison sentence for a former salesman for a Canadian pharmacy who had already pleaded guilty to a felony for selling misbranded and unapproved cancer drugs (here is the plea agreement). Rather than spend time in jail, Paul Bottomley will serve six months of house arrest and five years of probation.
The sentencing amounts to a setback to federal authorities who hoped to make an example of Bottomley as the FDA accelerates efforts to thwart the spread of counterfeit medicines and secure the ph...
Source: Pharmalot - July 15, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
Do Clinical Trials Work? - NYT
EVERY spring, some 30,000 oncologists, medical researchers and marketers gather in an American city to showcase the latest advances in cancer treatment.But at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology last month, much of the buzz surrounded a study that was anything but a breakthrough. To a packed and whisper-quiet room at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago, Mark R. Gilbert, a professor of neuro-oncology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, presented the results of a clinical trial testing the drug Avastin in patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma multi...
Source: PharmaGossip - July 15, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
On the Priority Breakthrough Accelerated Fast Track
So the FDA has the good ol' drug approval process. And then there's Priority Review, and Fast Track, and Accelerated Approval, and now the Breakthrough designation. What, exactly, do all these things mean, and how are they different?
Matthew Herper has a good overview here at Forbes. In short, Priority Review is supposed to take a few months off the usual review period. Fast Track is for drugs that target some unmet medical need, and speeds up their review as well. Accelerated Approval is the process for approving important unmet-need drugs based on preliminary data, with a review once larger studies are completed. (That,...
Source: In the Pipeline - July 10, 2013 Category: Chemists Tags: Regulatory Affairs Source Type: blogs
Maine Votes In Favor Importing Drugs From Foreign Pharmacies
After months of debate over access to affordable medicines, the Maine legislature overwhelmingly voted in favor of a bill that will allow state residents to purchase prescription drugs from mail-order pharmacies in Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Australia. The bill now goes to the governor.
Known as the ‘Act to Facilitate the Personal Importation of Prescription Drugs From International Mail-Order Pharmacies,’ the bill was introduced after the former attorney general last summer banned Maine businesses from purchasing drugs from mail-order pharmacies, claiming state law was being violated.
The move put an end to buyin...
Source: Pharmalot - June 21, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: esilverman Source Type: blogs
