Another day, another roundup

June 5, 2008 – 10:19 am

Time to make the donuts. Everyone I read was pretty prolific yesterday, so I better get the blog review done before I fall even farther behind.

Big blogger roundup

I am starting off with the Wall Street Journal Health Blog. Jacob Goldstein shares some words from Novartis CEO Dan Vasella about the cons and pros of DTC ads; reports on news that FDA is mulling a suicide warning for epilepsy drugs; and reports how Moody’s is gloomy about drug makers’ credit. On the subject of the suicide risk for epilepsy drugs, Alicia Mundy posts the news that epilepsy drugs may differ in risk.

One of the big news items is that TNF blockers could cause cancer in kids and that FDA is investigating. Our team at Pharmalive.com picked up the AP story. Ed Silverman at Pharmalot has the story here. He also follows up on the doomed deli scenario in Massachusetts, touches on the news that HDL cholesterol may not help the heart at all, and presents an interview he did with Jim Gottstein, the lawyer who helped leaked Zyprexa documents last year. Mr. Gottstein shares his perspective on the whole mess and what is at stake. Mr. Silverman also tears into an Indian Website for Chantix that hides safety information unless the viewer registers on the site. “…safety info should be as readily available as benefits - and certainly without having to first divulge personal info,” Mr. Silverman says. “That’s called putting patients first, a goal pharma is always claiming. Pfizer should join that club and change its web site in India.”

Around and about …

John Mack at the Pharma Marketing Blog says the news that HDL cholesterol may not help the heart adds to the need for DTC education. He also takes a look at a breast cancer advocacy group that has spoken out for Evista, and finds out the group has monetary ties to Eli Lilly.

Philip Dawdy at Furious seasons notes the new stealth TV ads for Chantix. He also picks up on a report from the United Kingdom that looks at the repurposing of psych meds to treat all sorts of minor disorders.

The anonymous blogger at Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry: a Closer Look seems to suspect that there is disease-mongering behind the booming sales of antipsychotic drugs.

Ahead of the BIO 2008 meeting, Peter Pitts at DrugWonks is puzzled why Thailand’s government is pushing for more biotech development. “Is the ministry oblivious to or ignorant of what investors in the biotech sector seek and need – like the primacy of IPR for innovative research?” he asks. “If Thailand wants to become a biotech hub, they’re going to have to do more than … whistle a happy tune.”

In this older item from Merrill Goozner at GoozNews, he takes a look at the Medicare drug compendia issue.

Dr. Derek Lowe asks his readers how the (not-so-lowly) lab associate is treated where they work.

Dr. Peter Rost at the Pharma Law Blog takes note, with some satisfaction, of Pfizer’s fallen stock price. He also shares a letter he received, allegedly from Pfizer’s employees in Africa, who accuse the company of racism against Africans.

The Prescription Access Litigation Blog highlights an essay by Dean Baker from the Center of Economic and Policy Research about how to better fund the development of new drugs, in which he compares the pharmaceutical industry and firefighters. I think he’s mixing his metaphors, but maybe that’s just me. The PAL poster has summarized the main point: “Baker’s main point is that we have accepted the current system of using the incentive of a patent to spur research and development as inevitable and natural. It brings to mind the saying ‘the fish are the last ones to notice the water.’ It’s vital to remember that there’s nothing natural or inherent about that system, however.”

Thomas Sullivan at Policy and Medicine gives his overview on the American Medical Student Association scorecard. “They put a lot of effort into this report and the emphasis is not on scholarship, or strength of teaching, or faculty-to-student ratio, which is how one would normally expect a report like this to be written,” he says. “So rather than help incoming students with valuable information on what is important to medical students, they only focus on a non-important issue, the school’s policy for relationships to industry. Instead they focus on the non-essential of gifts and individual financial relationships with industry.”