Roundup: Anemia drugs under assault, stem-cell trial moves forward, medical interventions and poor “quality of death,” and more
Is the bell tolling for EPO? – The news keeps going from bad to worse for the wonder drugs of biotech — the anemia treatments known as ESAs or EPO, shorthand for “erythropoiesis stimulating agents” and “erythropoietin,” respectively. Earlier today, an FDA advisory panel recommended new warnings for the drugs, which stimulate the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells, as well as fresh clinical studies on their safety. Recent studies in kidney-dialysis patients linked higher doses… Continue Reading
Andy Grove’s placebo pill for U.S. healthcare
Having survived prostate cancer and now facing a mild form of Parkinson’s disease, former Intel chairman Andy Grove has turned his analytical eye on the increasingly dysfunctional U.S. healthcare system.
Unfortunately, his recommendations are disappointingly small-scale and reflective of the inordinate faith that many high-tech aficionados place in technological “fixes” for complex social phenomena. I’ll explain why in a moment.
To Grove’s tremendous credit, he argues in a recent interview with Wired News that the most pressing… Continue Reading
How drug reps do that thing they do
Two fascinating papers in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine turn a spotlight on the practice of “detailing” — the office visits that drug-industry salespeople use to flatter and manipulate their way into the good graces of the doctors they want to influence.
The first and most eye-opening paper is co-authored by Shahram Ahari, a former Eli Lilly sales rep, and Adriane Fugh-Berman, a Georgetown University professor who researches drug marketing. Together, the two outline a variety of… Continue Reading
Health and science roundup: Amgen, generic biologics, the origins of white people and more
Amgen’s anemia rollercoaster — Biotechnology titan Amgen may have dodged a bullet when a study released Thursday showed that its anemia drug Aranesp didn’t shorten the lives of patients, after several other studies had suggested the opposite. But its anemia franchise isn’t out of the woods yet. A Wednesday report in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that for-profit dialysis clinics prescribe far higher doses of anemia drugs to their patients than do their non-profit… Continue Reading
Health and science roundup: Amgen, generic biologics, the origins of white people and more
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Amgen’s anemia rollercoaster — Biotechnology titan Amgen may have dodged a bullet when a study released Thursday showed that its anemia drug Aranesp didn’t shorten the lives of patients, after several other studies had suggested the opposite. But its anemia franchise isn’t out of the… Continue Reading