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Internet Drug News.com online since 1998 |
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2/15 500,000 Lives Predicted Saved by Salt Cutback
U.S.- wide salt reduction could prevent deaths .... The Institute of Medicine recommends most healthy people get 1,500 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day, with an upper limit of 2,300 mg. But the average American eats more like 3,600 mg each day .... [Reuters]
2/15 Bionic Eye Approved
FDA approves first retinal implant for rare eye disease .... The Argus II device consists of special glasses outfitted with a video camera and a video processing unit that sends signals to a wireless receiver implanted in the eye .... [Reuters]
2/15 340B Program Now Includes a Third of All US Hospitals
Dispute Develops Over Discount Drug Program .... About $6.9 billion worth of drugs, or about 2 percent of the nations total, are sold through the program annually, reducing revenue for the pharmaceutical companies by hundreds of millions of dollars a year .... [NY Times]
2/15 Full Pipeline for MDS Market
Five new MDS drugs "set to launch by 2018" .... The near-term MDS market will grow modestly as Revlimid obtains approval in Europe, but the next wave of noteworthy market growth will come between 2014 and 2018 .... [Pharma Times]
2/15 ENHANCE 'Cover-up' Costs Merck $688 Million
Merck settles cholesterol drug lawsuits .... Merck has agreed to pay $688 million to settle two long-running lawsuits brought by investors who alleged the drug maker delayed releasing bad news on its blockbuster cholesterol drugs .... [USA Today]
2/15 One in 10 Sexually Active Women Have Used Emergency Contraception
Contraception: Condoms Are King, Plan B Takes Hold .... One of the "most striking changes" over time has been the increase in the proportion of women who report their male partners used a condom — from 52% in 1982, to 82% in 1995, and to 93.4% in the latest figures .... [Medpage Today]
2/15 Cardinal Adds Home Delivery
Cardinal Health Agrees to Buy AssuraMed for $2.07 Billion .... With the purchase, Cardinal Health will start supplying 30,000 products in areas such as diabetes and wound care to patients in their homes .... [Bloomberg]
2/15 New Oral Agent for Thyroid Cancer
Eisai gets orphan drug status for Lenvatinib .... Lenvatinib, which targets follicular, medullary, anaplastic and metastatic or locally advanced papillary thyroid cancer, is an investigational small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor being studied globally as an oral agent .... [Marketwatch]
2/15 Tivozanib Still on Track; FDA Review by July
Astellas, Aveo's kidney cancer drug matches Nexavar on survival .... For the primary measure in the study — progression-free survival (PFS) - tivozanib was superior to Nexavar with a significantly better PFS of 8.4 months and a response rate of 13 per cent .... [Pharma Times]
2/15 Weekend Buzz Kill
Study shows alcohol consumption is a leading preventable cause of cancer death in the US .... Each alcohol-related cancer death accounted for an average of 18 years of potential life lost .... [Boston University Medical Center]
2/15 Internet Drug News Fast Takes:
"High-glycemic" foods tied to diabetes risk
Reuters
Celgene wins Chinese OK for Revlimid
Med City News
Mood drug that gets into waterways shows impact on fish
USA Today
Teva gets FDA approval for generic ADHD drug
Business Week
Massachusetts finalizes rules allowing hospitals to share medications to ease shortages
Boston.com
2/14 Prescription Costs Up 3.6% in 2012; Twice Overall Inflation Rate
Drug prices jump again while other health costs decline .... The trend is in sharp contrast to other health costs. Prices for a doctor's visit, lab test and nursing home room all fell below the rate of inflation for the past two years. .... [USA Today]
2/14 Diclofenac Implicated in Tens of Thousands of Unecessary Deaths
World's Most Popular Painkiller Raises Heart Attack Risk .... A slew of studies, though, show diclofenac — sold under the brand names Voltaren, Cambia, Cataflam and Zipsor — is just as likely to cause a heart attack as the discredited painkiller Vioxx (rofecoxib) .... [NPR]
2/14 Lack of Warnings Cost J&J Large Settlement
Jury awards Plymouth family $63 million for daughter's severe reaction to Children's Motrin .... Hundreds of people contract Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis a year in the United States -- nearly one-third of whom die and many other are either blinded or suffer other serious conditions .... [Boston Globe]
2/14 Office of Inspector General Knocks REMS Program
Does FDA Oversee REMS Adequately? HHS Says No .... Nearly half of sponsor assessments for 49 REMS reviewed did not include all data requested in FDA assessment plans and 10 were not submitted on time. .... [Pharmalot]
2/14 $36 Billion in Play for Rx-to-OTC Switches
Rx-to-OTC switches could be boon as FDA looks at switch paradigm .... A new report has identified $35.7 billion worth of potential Rx-to-OTC switches in a wide range of indications, from hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder to high cholesterol and erectile dysfunction .... [Pharmalot]
2/14 Intermezzo Launches with $29 Million Ad Budget
Purdue takes to the airwaves with Intermezzo ads .... The company is supplementing its middle-of-the-night television buys with print ads, in-office brochures and digital ads on Hulu. On the professional side, Purdue's 525-strong analgesic sales force is detailing primary care docs and retail pharmacies, backed by a 90-person contract specialty sales force. .... [MM&M]
2/14 Keeping Dangerous Junk Out of the Supply Channel
IOM: Work Needed on Counterfeit Drug Problem .... State licensing boards should restrict their licensing activities to drug wholesalers who have been vetted by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy .... [Medpage Today]
2/14 Medicaid-Level Rebates For Dual Eligibles Could Trim 2 Percent to 7 Percent from Drugmaker Profits
Obama Medicare rebate plan could hurt drug companies .... Administration officials say the President was talking about requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to offer rebates on drugs for 10 million people known as "dual eligibles" because they qualify for Medicare and Medicaid, and receive drug benefits through Medicare's Part D .... [Reuters]
2/14 15–24 Year-Olds Account for Half of STDs
Sex Diseases Cost $16 Billion a Year to Treat .... The costliest STDs are HIV, which requires lifelong care, and HPV, which causes throat, anal, penile, and cervical tumors. Use of vaccines that can prevent HPV have remained low as rates of HPV-related cancers have risen .... [Bloomberg]
2/14 Hype and Speculation on Sirukumab
Is This Pipeline Biologic a Future Blockbuster? .... If sirukumab shows significance in ongoing phase 3 trials, then Johnson & Johnson could become the undisputed leader in the massive rheumatoid arthritis market. The company would offer drugs for all levels of severity and response .... [Motley Fool]
2/14 Internet Drug News Fast Takes:
Oregon Experiment Will Provide Insight Into ACO-Based Reform
HealthDay News
Teva warns could face legal costs of $2.07 bln
Reuters
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2/8 Feds Brag 'Doughnut Hole Closing'; $706 Savings Per Senior
HHS: Medicare prescription drug savings hit $5.7B .... Drugmakers have agreed to give the government a 52.5% discount on premium drugs and 21% on generic drugs to participate in Medicare in 2013, and the government will pass the savings to seniors .... [USA Today]
2/8 $41 Billion for the Taking in Biosimilar Sales
Amgen's Planned Assault On AbbVie, Roche, And Lilly .... Because biosimilars will cost "only" $100 million or so to commercialize, they actually represent an appealing opportunity to a company like Amgen that is already in the business of making protein drugs .... [Forbes]
2/8 Inside Look at Tiny, Scrappy, Orphan Drug Developer of Ravicti
Hyperion's Pinpoint Mission Pays Off with Drug Approval .... The company advanced to the stage of filing a new drug application with only 13 employees and a network of consultants. The small staff faced an array of speedbumps, including litigation with its licensing partner, Medicis, and some snags at the FDA, before emerging with its first marketable product .... [xconomy]
2/8 Qsymia Soft Launch
Slow and steady can win the diet drug race .... Vivus, which sent out only 150 sales representatives to a target market of 25,000 doctors, is betting on slow, steady marketing of the Qsymia drug .... [Reuters]
2/8 Ampligen: The Drug That's Been Turned Down for 20 Years
The Most Thoroughly Rejected Drug of All Time .... The long regulatory history includes a Treatment IND that has been on clinical hold for 20 years, multiple denials of "Fast Track" designation requests, a refuse-to-file letter on the original NDA submission in 2007, and a "complete response" rejection in 2009. That history doesn't even include the earlier failure of the drug as a potential AIDS therapy in the 1980s. .... [RPM Report First Take]
2/8 Sanofi Wants to Think Outside the Pill Bottle
Viehbacher Sees New Sanofi Growing in Diagnostics, Nutrition .... "I believe in this health-care approach," which means Sanofi is becoming a company focused on health, not just drugs, Viehbacher said .... [Bloomberg]
2/8 Xarelto Trial Shows Efficacy; Risks
Xarelto Effective In Medically Ill Patients But At High Bleeding Cost .... At 35 days, clinically relevant bleeding occurred in 4.1% of patients in the rivaroxaban group versus 1.7% of patients in the enoxaparin group (RR=2.5, p<0.001). .... [Forbes]
2/8 ESRX May Close Former Medco Headquarters
Express Scripts Bleeds The Medco Ranks, Again .... Express Scripts is reportedly telling up to 200 workers to accept a pay cut of up to 40 percent or leave the pharmacy benefits manager .... [Pharmalot]
2/8 No Consensus on Best Psoriasis Treatment
Doctors' Perceptions of Psoriasis Therapies Vary .... infliximab, ustekinumab, cyclosporine, and adalimumab were regarded as being most likely to clear skin in three months (67 to 75 percent) .... [Physician's Briefing]
2/8 Express Scripts Claims 98% Accuracy in Predicting Nonadherence
If nonadherence is a "health condition", use big data as preventive screening tool .... ScreenRx analyzes 400 variables and how they interact to determine with 98 percent accuracy which patients are likely to become nonadherent within six to 12 months.... in families that have children, the parents are likely to not take their prescription medications regularly; also, if one partner falls prey to nonadherence, the contagion spreads to the other .... [Medcity News]
2/8 Internet Drug News Fast Takes:
'Clot-Buster' Drug May Still Be Best Stroke Treatment
Health Day News
FDA issues new draft guidance on Alzheimer's drug testing
Modern Healthcare
Alternative business models keep doctors in business and thriving
Healthcare Finance News
FDA Issues Another Warning on Fake Version of Cancer Drug Avastin
HealthDay News
Lilly stops development of rheumatoid arthritis drug
Reuters
2/7 Linzess Strategy: Broad Primary Care Market; Restrained Pricing; 300,000 Free Sample Sets
Ironwood Bucks the Trends, Makes Big Bet on Drug For Millions .... Given the opportunity in a wide-open field of primary care medicine, Ironwood and Forest are pulling out all the stops. Ironwood has hired 160 sales reps and Forest has deployed another 1,300 people who are charged with selling to a group of 85,000 high-prescribing primary care physicians and gastroenterologists .... [xconomy]
2/7 No Shortage of Sticky New Red Tape in Sunshine Act
15 things you should know about the final rule of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act .... Payments made by the manufacturer through a third party intended for an HCP/O are to be reported by the manufacturer, not the third party .... [MedCity News]
2/7 Heartbreaking Story of Life Destroyed by Adderall Addiction
Concerns About A.D.H.D. Practices and Amphetamine Addiction .... The tunnel-like focus the medicines provide has led growing numbers of teenagers and young adults to fake symptoms to obtain steady prescriptions for highly addictive medications that carry serious psychological dangers. These efforts are facilitated by a segment of doctors who skip established diagnostic procedures and renew prescriptions reflexively .... [NY Times]
2/7 Benzodiazepine Use in COPD Draws Warning
Frequently prescribed drug used in concerning ways with harmful side effects .... A popular class of drugs commonly used to treat sleep and mood symptoms continues to be frequently prescribed despite being known to have potentially life-threatening side effects .... [St. Michael's Hospital ]
2/7 Continued High Antipsychotics for Dementia Use Despite Legislation
Antipsychotic Rx for 22 Percent of Nursing Home Residents .... Of the 4,338,723 antipsychotic prescriptions in nursing homes, the majority (68.6 percent) were for the atypical agents quetiapine fumarate, risperidone, and olanzapine .... [Physician's Briefing]
2/7 Elan Cashes Out
Biogen to Pay Elan $3.25 Billion for Full Tysabri Rights .... The agreement gives Biogen all rights to the product, and leaves Dublin-based Elan to hunt for possible acquisitions with the proceeds. .... [Bloomberg]
2/7 Genetic Targeting to Select Patients — Even in Early Trials
Drug Firms Seek Targeted Approach .... Companies are moving toward using genetic science to select patients early on in the trial process who are likely to benefit from so-called "personalized" medicines .... [$$WSJ]
2/7 If You Ever Visit GSK, Bring a Folding Chair
Standing desks and walking stations replace office chairs at GSKs new Philadelphia offices .... In the new office space, no one has a designated seat; desk drawers have been replaced with lockers; trash cans and printers are in centralized areas to encourage movement; phones are embedded in computers; and workers could be typing away while sitting on a yoga ball or on a chair. And there are treadmill desks, known as "walking stations." .... [MedCity News
2/7 In Theaters Friday
'Side Effects': Steven Soderbergh's Pharmaceutical Thriller .... An investigation into an unexpected death turns up dirt on the unscrupulous relationship between Emily and her doctor, as well as the 'revolutionary' Ablixa medication she was treated with.... [Screen Rant]
2/7 Internet Drug News Fast Takes:
Alzheimer's to triple by 2050 as baby boomers age
Reuters
Roche Diabetes's Accu-Chek products scored highest in satisfaction in survey
Drug Store News
Physicians' Pay for Existing Patients Dropped in 2012
Physician's Briefing
People can transmit the flu from six feet away
Daily Briefing
There are 6 types of healthcare consumers; Which ones would you like to target?
MedCity News
FDA Clears Testosterone Gel
Zacks
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