Next time you complain about Drug Prices and BIG PHARMA consider this

Failed study, dimmed hopes in hunt for Alzheimer's treatment

Excerpt:

Treatment for Alzheimer's failed to slow mental decline in a widely anticipated study, ending hope that researchers at Eli Lilly had finally found a drug that does more to help those suffering from the fatal, mind-robbing disease. The pharmaceutical company's shares plunged 14 percent Wednesday before markets opened. The drug, solanezumab, missed the study's main goal when patients taking it did not experience a statistically significant slowing of cognitive decline — which involves a person's ability to remember things — compared to those taking a placebo or fake drug.

Juno Therapeutics halts midstage clinical trial after patient death

Excerpt:

Juno Therapeutics Inc. JUNO, -28.88% shares were halted in pre-market trade Wednesday after the company said one patient in its cancer trial had died and one was "not expected to recover." The two patients both experienced brain trauma earlier in the week during a phase 2 trial for a leukemia treatment, the company said. Two patients died in early July in the same clinical trial, but the company was allowed to resume the trial without the chemotherapy drug fludarabine, which Juno believed caused the deaths in combination with the company's JCAR015 drug. This week, Juno put the trial on clinical hold

Comment: Bernie routinely hits on Pharma. Meanwhile yield in LLY is 2.66%

Americans pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. The result: 1 in 5 patients cannot afford to fill their prescriptions.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 22, 2016

Dr Jarvik: "an outdoorsman as Woody Allen"

Drug Ads Raise Questions for Heart Pioneer

Excerpts:

Dr. Robert Jarvik is best known for the artificial heart he pioneered more than a quarter-century ago. Since then he had toiled in relative obscurity — until he began appearing in television ads two years ago for the Pfizer cholesterol drug Lipitor.

The ads have depicted him, among other outdoorsy pursuits, rowing a one-man racing shell swiftly across a mountain lake. “When diet and exercise aren’t enough, adding Lipitor significantly lowers cholesterol,” Dr. Jarvik says in the ad.

....

A Congressional committee, concerned that the Lipitor ads could be misleading, has said it wants to interview Dr. Jarvik about his role as the drug’s pitchman.

Some of the questions may involve his credentials. Even though Dr. Jarvik holds a medical degree, for example, he is not a cardiologist and is not licensed to practice medicine. So what, critics ask, qualifies him to recommend Lipitor on television — even if, as he says in some of the ads, he takes the drug himself?

And, for that matter, what qualifies him to pose as a rowing enthusiast? As it turns out, Dr. Jarvik, 61, does not actually practice the sport. The ad agency hired a stunt double for the sculling scenes.

Comment: I'm ok with the ads and I think that Robert Jarvik is a genius. (The last 2 posts are a nice break from politics!)

Lipitor vs. Zocor

Maker of Lipitor Digs In to Fight Generic Rival

Business
Maker of Lipitor Digs In to Fight Generic Rival
By STEPHANIE SAUL and ALEX BERENSON
Published: November 3, 2007
Each month, thousands of patients on the cholesterol drug are switching to simvastatin, a cheaper alternative, but Pfizer is not letting its flagship drug go down without a fight.

Excerpt:

And scientists and doctors say that for most of the 16 million people in America who take drugs to reduce cholesterol, the low-priced alternative will work as well as the name-brand medicine — Lipitor, which is made by Pfizer and is the nation’s most widely prescribed drug.

While Lipitor itself is not available as a generic, a very similar drug made by Merck, Zocor, lost its patent protection last year. The generic version of Zocor, simvastatin, is now much cheaper than Lipitor, leading insurers to press doctors and patients to switch.

Comment: See my early post: Generic Drugs

Generic drugs

My Doctor switched me over from Lipitor (which is a non-generic drug to treat high cholesterol) to Zocor (a generic drug).

Formerly my co-pay for a three month supply of Lipitor was $ 75. Today I bought a 3 month supply of Zocor for $ 13.33.

For me, both drugs work the same. And what a cost savings for the generic!

“Disease mongering”

Giving Legs to Restless Legs: A Case Study of How the Media Helps Make People Sick

Defined (quote):

“Disease mongering” is the effort by pharmaceutical companies (or others with similar financial interests) to enlarge the market for a treatment by convincing people that they are sick and need medical intervention. Typically, the disease is vague, with nonspecific symptoms spanning a broad spectrum of severity—from everyday experiences many people would not even call “symptoms,” to profound suffering. The market for treatment gets enlarged in two ways: by narrowing the definition of health so normal experiences get labeled as pathologic, and by expanding the definition of disease to include earlier, milder, and presymptomatic forms (e.g., regarding a risk factor such as high cholesterol as a disease in itself).

Comments: I've been really skeptical about RLS. It strikes me that drug manufacturers cook up a drug and then make up syndromes to treat with it. I think that by and large the E.D. drugs are this!