Hot times, hot schedule

Ahhh, a heatwave in the Northeast … summer is not even officially here yet and we’re already being flame-broiled. And I have to go to New York City tomorrow for Rodale’s 11th annual presentation of the national survey on consumer reaction to DTC advertising of medicines. Manhattan in triple-digit heat, oh huzzah, just how I love to spend my day. I feel sorry for the poor guys going to this presentation who have to wear suits and ties. All in all, I am not looking forward to a day of potential heatstroke as I try to make my way around town.

BIO 2008: Coming on like a freight train

This time next week, I’ll be boarding a flight to San Diego, where I’ll be spending two days at the BIO 2008 convention. It’s a weird feeling, this traveling around. I spent years immersed in my cozy den of an office, never going out to events. But the new powers that be encourage, nay require, for me to get my face out there, as long as our travel budget can cover it. BIO 2008 was a pretty easy sell. But I have to say, once my name went on that media list, the phone calls and e-mails have been pretty much nonstop. So many delegations are there from around the world, the exhibit hall will be like traveling around the world without the need for a passport. I’m looking forward to the Wednesday luncheon with keynote speeches by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dr. J. Craig Venter. It will be very different circumstances than the last times I had any interaction with them. Long before he became “the governator,” Mr. Schwarzenegger made an appearance with then-Gov. Jim Florio near Trenton, N.J., for the President’s Council of Physical Fitness; I was one of a horde of local media covering that event. He’s a lot shorter than he looks on the silver screen. And I interviewed Dr. Venter by phone after the publication of the sequencing and analysis of the human genome in 2001. The most memorable thing about that interview is that he asked me if “Christiane Truelove” were a stage name. I still don’t know to this day if I should have been offended.

Anyway, on to the blogs …

Around and about …

Pharmalot has a new look. What a nice way to start out a Monday! The verdict: I like it. Snappy and to the point. Among the interesting Monday items, Mr. Silverman posts the video of the debate between Dr. Daniel Carlat and Dr. Thomas Stossel about the proposed Massachusetts gift ban; talks about how Provenge activists get another day in court; comments on the news that Merck’s Singulair scripts have taken a dive; talks about how pharma companies dislike FDA’s plan to have pharma companies test drug names for approval; and links to the AP story that describes Amylin’s stock tumbling on news out of the American Diabetes Association meeting about rivals to Byetta.

At the Wall Street Journal Health Blog, Scott Hensley reports that Pfizer R&D Chief Martin Mackay wrote an editorial defending Chantix in a local Connecticut paper and Harvard psychiatrists are under fire for drug-company funding; Jacob Goldstein brings attention to studies out of the American Diabetes Association meeting that lowering risk factors isn’t enough to improve health; a drop in FDA warning letters signals an enforcement shift; and Shirley Winslow writes that J&J wants to get kids as young as 8 years old in contact lenses. I myself would have KILLED for those as a kid; I got fitted for my first pair of glasses at age 7, and my left-eye astigmatism posed some problems for the optometrist, who at that time only had glass to work with.

Philip Dawdy at Furious Seasons comments on the Senate probe of pharma payments to three Harvard psychiatrists. He He also looks at Shire’s recall of some of the Daytrana ADHD patches. Apparently people had a hard time getting the backing material off. “Not such a big deal, but when you are marketing a drug for kids and adults with ADHD, then you’d better make it easy to use,” Mr. Dawdy says.

While in Siberia, Merrill Goozner of GoozNews writes about how a study by Pfizer raises issues with Chantix.

Jack Friday at PharmaGossip looks at the launch of the blood thinner Pradaxa in Europe. He also asks, “How bad were the Harvard psych crew at math?”

You can bet the anonymous blogger at Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry: A Closer Look is not very charitable toward Dr. Joe Biederman. “Well, Biederman is the undisputed King of Bipolar in kids, and I’m still awaiting any impressive outcome data on the ‘bipolar’ kids being treated with antipsychotics,” Dr. Carlat says. “Especially the young kids. 4 year olds on Seroquel - I’m glad I’m not on Joe’s level. Are we better off now that the diagnosis of bipolar has run rampant in kids?”

And now for a defender: Peter Pitts at DrugWonks flays the New York Times article about the Senate probe of the Harvard psychiatrists. “The not-so-hidden agenda is that anyone who supports the use of psychiatric pharmaceuticals for any reason needs to be humiliated and destroyed,” he says. “In that respect this is all about a new definition of R&D. Now it means RICO and Destruction.”

Dr. Daniel Carlat at the Carlat Psychiatry Blog has some charitable things to say about at least one of the Harvard researchers in the Senate probe. “I am inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt on this issue,” he says. “I don’t think they hid these payments out of greed, sneakiness, or the thrill of getting away with something. They probably simply didn’t believe these earnings were relevant to the NIH funding they received. … The big lesson here is that Congress must pass the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, because we will never be able to grasp the extent of the complex financial relationships between companies and thought leaders without this legislation.”

Bob Ehrlich at DTC in Perspective asks does DTC creative mislead?