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POPSThe side effects of Ritilin "How many future Beethovens, Thomas Jeffersons, Ernest Hemingways, Martin Luther Kings and Maya Angelous are we currently drugging into stupors in our schools and nation? Men and women of greatness are probably the least likely to sit still and do the normal schoolwork directed at the average student. How many non-drugged kids would have never become famous, but would have been able to hold a job at Wal-Mart, get married, have kids, go bowling, collect the next Beanie Babies, attend church, and enjoy life but are now doomed to become drug addicts, felons, and just plain psychotic?"
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POPSBrain Doping? An online survey in Nature says scientists and engineers are taking concentration-enhancing drugs. Via the WSJ Health Blog.
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POPSBad For Glaxo, Good For Merck The run of good luck Merck has had with regard to potential rivals has really been amazing. First, it's Januvia benefited from a regulatory delay of Novartis' Galvus. Then the safety controversy over Avandia further boosted Januvia sales. Now the main rival to Merck's Gardasil vaccine, Cervarix from GSK, faces another regulatory delay.
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POPS39,870 That's the total number of jobs cut by pharmaceutical companies this year, according to Ed Silverman of Pharmalot. If Ed's count is right, that's a stunning total. At the beginning of 2006, Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated pharma job cuts had hit 70,000 over three years. And that was more job cuts than in the previous decade.
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POPSMerck's Big Risk: High Expectations So much has gone so right for so long. Merck has executed well, but it has also gotten very lucky. For instance, its diabetes pill Januvia would not be such a big product were it not for both the safety problems plaguing GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia and the regulatory delay of Novartis' Galvus. Earnings forecasts have just kept going up. Should investors start to feel cautious? Or can Merck really keep delivering when other drug stocks are not?
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POPSMost flu shots contain mercury A typical 0.5 milliliter flu shot contains 25 micrograms - or 50,000 parts per billion - of mercury. The EPA classifies a liquid with 200 parts per billion of mercury as hazardous waste. The limit for drinking water is 2 parts per billion. I think it would be well worth the negligible extra cost to get the thimerosal-free shot.
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POPSFDA Rejects Generic Lovenox This is a defeat for Momenta and its partner Novartis, of course, but it is also a setback for the prospect of generic knockoffs of biotech protein drugs. Biogenerics, or biosimilars, whatever you want to call them, look as if they'll have a long road to market in the U.S.
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POPSSepracor Cuts Jobs, Shares Rise 13% New chief executive Adrian Adams, who previously led Kos Pharmaceuticals and was at Novartis before that, makes cutting costs a key part of his plan for the maker of the sleeping pill Lunesta. Adams said in a statement:“We are looking forward to the next phase of growth for Sepracor, a phase during which we intend not only to improve cost structures, but also more fully leverage our product franchises, grow and differentiate our research and development pipeline and aggressively pursue synergistic corporate development and licensing opportunities.”
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POPSBiology Goes Open Source Some of the world's biggest drug companies are finding that their genetic research is worth more to them if they give it away. read complete article at http://readthisurl.com/forbes+opensource
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POPSFDA rejecting more drugs There are 2 sides here. First I can see that the FDA would want to protect their image, and the drug companies avoid lawsuits (which we just end up paying when they raise drug prices). Second -- I can see terminally ill people desperate to try anything. I don't believe that the courts should deny the dying as long as they stipulate an understanding of the nature of experimental drugs. People need to stop being so ready to "sue". I used the drug remicade (it was not experimental, the potential side effects were documented). I happened to be in the small percentage of people who could not tolerate it; I developed diabetes & some other side effects. That's just the way it was - I choose to take it, knew possible side effects - have to deal with it now. I am not joining any groups that are suing....would that give me my health back????
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POPSNovartis, Idenix Hep C Drug Torpedoed This one looks good and dead. There's a lot of talk about how big pharma has to buy up lots of biotech drugs. But I wonder how often Big Pharma's that do so are blinded by problems that might have been picked up in earlier trials. Not saying that's happening here, but food for thought...--Matt Herper
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POPSTry an e-cigarette to quit smoking "The nicotine is delivered to the lungs within 7 to 10 seconds," said Scott Fraser, Vice President of SBT Co. Ltd., the Beijing-based firm that first developed the electronic cigarette technology in 2003 and which is now controlled by Golden Dragon. "It feels like a cigarette, looks like a cigarette, it even emits vapor. In many ways, it is like an actual smoking experience, and that's what makes us different," he told Reuters.
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