The Health Care Blog

Happy Birthday, Viagra!

By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn It's the drug that raised the profile of medicine in popular culture. It's been hawked by a prominent politician and has been the butt of jokes on late-night TV. It's Viagara, and it's turning 10 today. The...
March 27, 2008 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (2)

TECH: Drugs & technology--Allscripts and SafeMed

To finish off the last but not least of my HIMSS interviews, here are two companies that both announced being part of the Google ecosystem on the Thursday of HIMSS. One is well known and a leader in ePrescribing and...
March 2, 2008 in Pharma, Podcasts, Technology | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA: The ACP does the right thing

In 1937 marijuana was banned by Congress. The only question asked was, "what's the position of the American Medical Association?". It actually was in favor of keeping marijuana legal for medical purposes. But the response given to Congress by whoever...
February 19, 2008 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA: The statin backlash (or WSJ later than THCB by 5 years!)

Yesterday the THCB hit meter went off the charts. not sadly because of some new genius posting on THCB, but because the WSJ has this article about Lipitor causing memory loss and Google searches are bring up an article from...
February 14, 2008 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA: Finally, a drug site that everyone can approve of!

Yup, they really are cashing in on the Placebo Effect.
February 13, 2008 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: Reprieve for Amgen looking doubtful

In a story titled somewhat cryptically Medicare chief stands by anemia move (do they mean he’s trying to become anemic?) Reuters reports that CMS is not backing down from its decision to radically cut payments for anti-anemia drugs for chemotherapy...
February 8, 2008 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA: Stunt doubles in pharma DTC?

I’m sure (well I’m not sure but I’ll cheerfully and casually postulate) to keep you all amused on a Friday) that there are many possible overlooked problems with Lipitor and the statins. I’ve heard of severe muscle pain, even amnesia....
February 8, 2008 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY/PHARMA: DEA's insane persecution of pain patients continues

Just in case you needed to be reminded that the DEA is a refuge of evil scumbags and needs to be abolished, here's another exhibit (from the good people at DRCNet): Federal agents arrested Dr. Stephen Schneider, operator of the...
February 1, 2008 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (4)

PHARMA/TECH: Drug interaction checkers and more

I'm up over at the Health 2.0 Blog talking about my favorite drug interaction checker. Meanwhile if you (yes, that means you) want to write on the Health 2.0 Blog, please email me and let me know.
January 17, 2008 in Health 2.0, Pharma, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: Talking of gotcha's...

Schering Plough is coming under multo criticism the last two days for sitting on data for up to a year that shows that the anti-cholesterol drug Zetia, when combined with Merk’s Zocor in the combo drug Vytorin, not only didn’t...
January 16, 2008 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (3)

BLOGS: Diabetes Year in Review

Our friend and colleague Amy Tenderich has a just excellent Diabetes Year in Review up at DiabetesMine. It covers Health 2.0 (of course) but also drugs devices, design, and the growth of people with diabetes as a social force. Amy...
December 18, 2007 in Blogs, Consumers, Health 2.0, Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Pipeline: Vaccines v.s. Antibiotics by Dov Michaeli

In 1796 Dr. Edward Jenner performed an experiment that today would have got him expelled from his Medical Society, and maybe even landed them in jail. He vaccinated a boy against smallpox by pricking his arms with pus taken from...
December 5, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (3)

PHARMA: Shocking revelations

Says here (“here” being a long mea culpa article by a psychiatrist and former agent of Wyeth in the NY Times) that some doctors get paid by drug companies to give talks to other doctors about drugs, and that not...
November 26, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: Health Business Blog interviews Genentech about Avastin

This is a pretty good example of a smart consultant using his blog to explain something complex. David Williams at the Health Business Blog got an on the record interview from Genentech about Avastin and Lucentis. If you know the...
November 2, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (4)

PharmaSURVEYOR in a capsule By Erick Von Schweber

THCB frequently spotlights Health 2.0 startups that are using Web 2.0 technology in new and innovative ways to solve healthcare challenges. Today we feature Erick and Linda Von Schweber, the developers of a new web-based system that allows consumers to...
October 25, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

HEALTH2.0: Sermo, Pfizer: Big Pharma puts big toe in social networking waters

You can’t trust those Brits. I get a super exclusive on the Sermo-Pfizer deal and those damn Brits at the FT break the press embargo. So much for “honour” amongst journalists! This is the latest version of Big Pharma’s experiment...
October 15, 2007 in Health 2.0, Pharma | Permalink | Comments (9)

PHARMA/QUALITY: Merrill Goozner has dug into "The Most Costly Earmark in S-CHIP"

GoozNews: The Most Costly Earmark in S-CHIP Increased risk of death. No benefit. Higher costs for taxpayers. The ongoing Epo saga, whose latest chapter is being written on Capitol Hill, is a perfect example of why our health care outcomes...
August 27, 2007 in Pharma, Quality | Permalink | Comments (1)

OMNI: The Oncology Metrics National Index - Brian Klepper

An innovative Ft. Worth consulting firm comprised of experienced oncology professionals, Oncology Metrics, has linked private oncology practices throughout the country in a collaborative, knowledge-sharing enterprise, called the Oncology Circle. The first round of information brought together 22 practices containing...
August 20, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Pharma, Physicians, Quality, Technology, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (5)

PHARMA: Great history and analysis of the FDA

From Emily Friedman at HHN. It's called Happy Tails, Jake Leg, and the Food and Drug Administration and unusually for a mainstream publication it notes that Prohibition is stupid.
August 9, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA: Time to get Shakespearean at big Pharma? by The Industry Veteran

The Industry Veteran has been busy this summer, but luckily for those missing his unique view of the pharma world, he’s ba-ack. And in his purview this time is the whole issue of why Big Pharma is filling its top...
August 7, 2007 in Industry Veteran, Pharma | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA: HealthDot Pharma Report 04

The ScribeMedia guys bring you the HealthDot Pharma Report 04. Unusual and perhaps the future? UPDATE: Link fixed.
June 27, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/PHYSICIANS/HOSPITALS/QUALITY: Busy busy busy

My correspondents have sent me lots of articles today. All worth a read— When Is a Pain Doctor a Drug Pusher? Basically never as far as I can tell but in the DEA’s view any time the DEA feels that...
June 22, 2007 in Hospitals, Pharma, Physicians, Quality | Permalink | Comments (7)

PHYSICIANS/PHARMA: Klepper on oncology

Brian Klepper has an excellent piece on the mess in oncology called The cognitive dissonance of conflicted care (over at Pat Salber's blog The Doctor Weighs In).
June 20, 2007 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (6)

PHARMA/POLICY: Crackpots at Hoover

The NY Times gives an op-ed to a crackpot called Henry Miller who used to be a minor official at FDA and is now with the other loonies at Hoover. It’s called Crackpot Legislation in which he goes after those...
June 18, 2007 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA: Two interesting articles on Avandia

Both from Pat Salber’s blog. One on “How did we get into this mess” by Dov Michaeli and the other by Pat herself, called Truth and Consequences.
June 15, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: I guess Crawford's lucky he's not Chinese

Lester Crawford's incredibly undistinguished tenure at the FDA ended in weird pseudo disgrace. on the other hand these guys think that his fate could have been much worse.
May 31, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/POLICY: War on drugs a loser

A major Canadian paper is saying something rather sensible--"War on drugs a loser".
May 29, 2007 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: What the Zubillaga affair may suggest, by The Industry Veteran

We haven’t spent much time over here talking about the “buckets of cash” scandal that’s been keeping the pharma-focused bloggers very busy, and even less comment on the apparently expensive and rather bizarre purchase of MedImmune. Both concerning AstraZeneca. But...
May 10, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (4)

PHARMA/PHYSICIANS: ESRD centers having the curtain pulled back

The NY Times shows that apparently doctors owning ESRD centers and others running chemo-infusions centers reap millions for Anemia drugs . Who knew? OK, anyone reading THCB for the past few years knows all about this, but now that it’s...
May 9, 2007 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (9)

PHARMA/POLICY: DEA insanity continues--Dr. Hurwitz Convicted

I’m a little late as this happened last week, but it has to be reported even though it makes me very angry. The DEA and its poodles in the DOJ have succeeded in getting Dr. William Hurwitz Convicted on 16...
May 7, 2007 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHYSICIANS/PHARMA: Fool me once-shame on you. Fool me twice.....er won't get fooled again? by The Industry Veteran

So there’s been a fair amount of fuss about a new paper by two academics, one a former drug rep, about the tricks big Pharma uses to “fool” physicians when it details them. You may not be impressed and may...
May 1, 2007 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (3)

PHARMA: Fard on Pharma-Non-Profit Cause Alliances

Fard Johnmar at Envision Solutions has another report out. This one is about the public’s view of disease specific non-profits, such as the American Diabetes, Heart, Cancer, et al Associations/Societies and their alliances with drug companies. Neither side looks too...
April 26, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/POLICY: Is the drug war nearing an end?

It's Friday and I'm up over at Spot-on with a rather too hopefully titled piece called, Is the drug war nearing an end?. Come back here to comment.
April 6, 2007 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/POLICY: John Tierney covers the Hurwitz Trial

John Tierney, who sadly gave up his libertarian op-ed column in the NY Times reports on the William Hurwitz trial. Regular THCB readers will remember how appalling the DEA is in its draconian persecution of pain doctors, and how they...
April 4, 2007 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA: 60 Minutes on the MMA

60 Minutes on Sunday had an entertaining story about the Medicare drug bill’s passage in late 2003. Not exactly new news, but a fun retelling of how Tom Delay, and PhRMA rammed the bill through literally by holding the vote...
April 3, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (4)

PHARMA: Ecstasy commercial

Ecstasy commercial — great parody (at Kevin, M.D)
March 30, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PBM/PHARMA: The Group Guy

The Group Guy: new blog from a benefits broker who is not too impressed with PBMs or the average knowledge level of his customers about generics.
March 28, 2007 in PBMs, Pharma | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA/PYSICIANS: United is getting grumpy at the oncology-industrial complex

While I’ve been focusing on pricking egos in the HBS common room, Greg Pawelski has been keeping vigil on our friends over in the wonderful world of chemo. The main recent development is the FDA issuing a warning about overuse...
March 27, 2007 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (6)

PHARMA: WSJ's new blog, NCAA and The Industry Veteran's handicapping

The WSJ has a new health blog. Should be good to keep tabs on—focusing mostly on the business of health care. No posts from Barbara Martinez as yet (pity!). One of their earliest posts is a comparison of March Madness...
March 26, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/THE INDUSTRY: The Rx for the busy traveler

And now in the latest in niche marketing, pharmacies with NPs and pharamcists setting up shop beyond the security gates in airports.
March 23, 2007 in Pharma, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: Media bias against big Pharma? The Industry Veteran responds

Last week I got an email from a group I’d never heard of called The Business and Media Institute promoting their new study of how TV news media was biased against Big Pharma. Their main complaint is that while the...
March 23, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (4)

PHARMA: Merck’s Miracle Vaccine –What Is This Story Really About? By Maggie Mahar

Yesterday, Merck announced that it is no longer going to try to persuade states to make its new $360 cervical cancer vaccine mandatory for all pre-teens. (At least, not publicly). The company wouldn’t divulge how much it has spent, to...
February 22, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (19)

PHARMA: The Future of Non-Profit Drug Development By Merrill Goozner

Merrill Goozner has been writing about economics and health care for many years. The former chief economics correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, Merrill has written for a long list of publications including the New York Times, The American Prospect and...
February 13, 2007 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (5)

PHARMA/BLOGS: Jim Edwards torpedoes own career!

Some of the best reporting on the pharma business in the last few years has come not from the mainstream press but from Jim Edwards, a reporter buried in the marketing industry trade press at Brandweek. Given the fact that...
February 2, 2007 in Blogs, Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: Off label marketing and the 2008 election, by The Industry Veteran

For those of you bitter at not seeing enough of The Industry Veteran, he’s back! This time he’s complaining about Pfizer’s off-label marketing and linking it to the Presidential race. For those of you who’ve had too much of him…..sorry!...
January 30, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY/PHARMA: Doing Drugs the Right Way

At Huffington Post, Vince Beiser on Vancouver’s harm reduction strategy.
January 29, 2007 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/PHYSICIANS: Big joke-Free CME: Pharmed out doesn't impress The Industry Veteran

THCB regulars will be missing the delicate tones of The Industry Veteran. But never fear, he’s back and none the less caustic for his lay-off from these hallowed electrons. Here’s his take on the new CME for doctors. No doubt...
January 25, 2007 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (17)

PHARMA: Remember the AIDS medicine in Africa fuss?

Remember when big pharma got its PR arse handed to it for denying third world countries the right to make cheap generic AIDS medicines? There seems to be the same kind of controversy starting up with biologic products in cancer...
January 18, 2007 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/POLICY/QUALITY: Cost-effectiveness in drug approval

I’ve been hanging with the libertarian Canada-bashers from PRI! They and the California Health Institute (the Cal biotech and drug company industry group) invited me to a very, very nice dinner last night. I assume that they used the drug...
December 18, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Quality | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: Maybe the Dems are serious about drug pricing

It’s hard to see how Medicare Part D as constructed can easily be changed for the government to go after prescription pricing, no matter how much Pete Stark et al may want to. But there are other drugs that Medicare...
December 7, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (10)

PHARMA: That can't have been a fun management call, with UPDATE

Pfizer’s next big drug for heart disease (torcetrapib which was slated to replace Lipitor) has bombed in trials, causing sufficient deaths that the trials have been ended early and development has been stopped. This is obviously dreadful news for Pfizer,...
December 4, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (4)

POLICY/POLITICS/PHARMA: PhRMA sends the D out on the field

Even thought the White House will likely veto any change to Part D, the WSJ has started playing desperate defense on behalf of PhRMA. Apparently if we impose government price controls, it’ll cripple R&D and no new drug will ever...
November 24, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (30)

TECH/PHARMA: McCall aquitted

I must admit that I didn't even know he was on trial, but it appears that he was and he just got away with it. Yup Charlie McCall who guilt up HBOC based on fraudulent accounting, and sold it to...
November 3, 2006 in Pharma, Technology | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHYSICIANS/PHARMA: The New England Journal gets a local examination

Boston Magazine has interesting article about the NEJM. Not the least of the issue is how the local medical society uses it as a cash cow. Well worth a read.
November 1, 2006 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/POLICY/POLITICS: More rational behavior from big Pharma

Exactly as happened in 2000, and 2002 a late surge of money is coming to help Republicans from the PACs of New Jersey’s finest. According to a report published Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, drug-industry dollars are helping to...
October 26, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (15)

PHARMA (well sort of): Jim Edwards having a little too much fun

Jim Edwards of Brandweek has been writing about “Bob” the (fictional) recipient of the Enzyte male enhancement pill (John Mack likes Bob too!). As you might have guessed, the pills a crock and the company behind it is a bunch...
October 24, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/POLICY: Price negotiations coming?

Joe Paduda is puzzled that drug company prices and profits are going up, yet the NY Times thinks that we can’t get a better deal on drug prices for Medicare. But in some ways that’s a little irrelevant, as the...
October 23, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (8)

PHARMA/POLICY: McLellan leaves offices with partisan and incorrect remarks about Part D

Someone should tell Mark McClellan that he was generally respected by everyone and that now that he doesn't work for the White House there's no need to become a Republican shill. But that's what he's doing by saying that Medicare...
October 17, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/POLICY: Crawford goes down

Small beer by the standards of this corrupt Administration (Halliburton anyone?) but given that former F.D.A. Chief Crawford is going down in a conflict of interest scandal, I can safely assume that at least one THCB reader is quietly smiling...
October 17, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (13)

PHARMA/PBMs: How dumb is the customer? Barbara Martinez tells you the answer

Everyone knows that hospitals have a “list” price that only a very few totally powerless uninsured patients pay (and in California that hospitals are bizarrely required to report that price to the state). Then there’s an actual amount that Medicare...
October 9, 2006 in PBMs, Pharma | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA/POLICY: When off-label drug use attacks! (Pharma profits, that is)

The NEJM, in an article called The Price of Sight -- Ranibizumab, Bevacizumab, and the Treatment of Macular Degeneration catches up with a THCB contributor from 4 months ago. The issue is that Genentech has a new and to the...
October 9, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/POLICY: U.S. Drops Program to Halt Discount Drugs From Canada

U.S. Drops Program to Halt Discount Drugs From Canada The federal government plans to halt a controversial crackdown on discount drugs mailed from Canadian pharmacies to U.S. customers, removing a significant hurdle to Americans buying cheaper medications from abroad. So...
October 4, 2006 in Pharma, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (6)

PHARMA: But this is how it's done

The NY Times has an article about how a biotech drug that basically is no better than a generic is selling off the shelves at $4,200 a Dose. Doctors think it's better, patients believe it's better and payers are too...
October 3, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (7)

PHARMA/POLICY/POLITICS: November comes after September

Interesting article in the WaPo about the impact of the donut hole in Part D on the Senior vote. I think it will matter, it will hurt the Republicans and the signs seems to be point that way in one...
October 2, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (35)

PHYSICIANS/PHARMA: The oncologists' chemo junket flies above the radar

You may have heard just a few things on THCB from Greg Pawelski, Matt Quinn, me and others about the oncologist prescribing franchise, and how it might just change physicians’ behavior a tad. Well Greg informs me that last Thursday...
September 25, 2006 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (16)

PHARMA/POLITICS: When Democrats attack!

When Democrats attack, somehow it doesn’t convey the ferocity of the original series…but with Bush’s approval ratings going up as the price of gas comes down, the Democrats are issuing a Medicare drug report. Yup, they’ve noticed that there is...
September 21, 2006 in Pharma, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA: Peter Rost's confessions of a healthcare hitman

So the book that Rost has been working on is out. (Here’s a very quick summary of his story I wrote back in March). It's called The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman. In contrast to John Mack’s review which...
September 12, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (8)

PHARMA/HEALTH PLANS: Responding to propaganda with idiot propaganda

Michael Moore dissects U.S. health care. So the first excerpts of "Sicko" have been shown, and the spin from the industry is already quite remarkable. We can't control what a major Hollywood entertainer does," said Mohit Ghose, a spokesman for...
September 11, 2006 in Health Plans, Pharma | Permalink | Comments (7)

PHARMA: Rost loses, or wins?

There’s an amazing place in the world called the Chinese War Memorial. It’s in Taiwan, and it recounts the tale of the Chinese Civil war from the nationalists side, ending with the glorious retreat to the Republic of China, while...
September 8, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHYSICIANS/PHARMA/TECH: A take on the news, sort of

Things we already knew: Doctors are poor at judging their own abilities. It’s a bit like everyone says they’re a good driver, but that 75% of drivers are terrible. Merck earnestly believes that it was as pure as the driven...
September 7, 2006 in Pharma, Physicians, Technology | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA: Probably another false start from the DEA

The black stone that resides in the chest of DEA administrator Karen Tandy in the place where the rest of us have a heart must have some gravel chipping off today. The DEA allegedly has revised its rules on prescribing...
September 7, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: Jim Edwards is very smart

Brandweek’s Jim Edwards is very smart and sees through the industry BS very well—almost at a Venessa Furhman level. He probably should be plying his trade on a bigger stage given the rubbish that the science/business reporters of certain national...
August 25, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/POLICY: New trial for Hurwitz

Excellent news as there’ll be a new trial for William Hurwitz. I’m trying to find out if they’ve released him from jail already. I and my crusty old dad have both contributed to his defense fund, and it looks like...
August 24, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA/POLITICS: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the FDA toilet

Anti-Abortion Groups are opposing the FDA Nominee over the compromise on the OTC switch for for adults only for Plan B. Robert Steeves, who’s desperately trying to stay dry on what’s a fast receding sand bank for rational Republicans, writes...
August 21, 2006 in Pharma, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/POLITICS: Closing the loop on Plan B

So finally we got some resolution to the ridiculous Plan B situation which has helped drag the FDA even further into the mud --F.D.A. Gains Accord on Wider Sales of Next-Day Pill . It will go OTC but only for...
August 11, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (3)

POLICY/HEALTH PLANS/PHARMA: Part D--a tale of two headlines

Most Beneficiaries Enrolled in Medicare Rx Benefit Satisfied With Drug Plan, Nearly Two in 10 Experienced Major Problem, Study Finds or if you prefer Poll shows 80% of those enrolled in Medicare drug plan satisfied So go ahead and guess...
July 31, 2006 in Health Plans, Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (3)

PHARMA/POLICY: Medicaid gets screwed over on best price, Ignagni fibbing again.

A little while ago I sat through a webcast starring my favorite factually challenged health plan lobbyist. Karen Ignagni said this about the costs of pharmaceuticals for Medicaid that are now bought instead by the private plans working under Part...
July 18, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (3)

QUALITY/PHARMA: Someone's going to get fired at the DEA for sure

The WSJ writes about a serious scientific study of the hallucinogen in magic mushrooms. As you might expect virtually all of the participants thought that the sessions had a very powerful effect and 60% of the clinical trial participants said...
July 11, 2006 in Pharma, Quality | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/PHYSICIANS: Yet more on Rx data sales

The NEJM has a perspective about the sale of Rx data of physicians prescribing patterns, which caused a lot of fuss on THCB a while back. In my view this is problem about number 728 on the docket of what's...
June 29, 2006 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA: The Macular Degeneration Rip Off, By PAT AWASH

Occassionally I get actual patients writing into me at THCB and sometimes it's worth letting their experience with the system tell a story about how the opaque world of drug and health services pricing comes home to ground level. This...
June 29, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (5)

PHARMA: Can There Be Too Many Cures for Cancer? by Maggie Mahar

Last week, an upbeat story in the New York Times described how big pharmaceutical companies have discovered cancer. A few years ago, the article points out, companies like Pfizer, Glaxo and Wyeth had relatively little interest in what they saw...
June 11, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (6)

PHARMA/POLICY/POLITICS: The beginning of the doughnut hole

The beginning of the doughnut hole has been noticed at a new blog (to me) called On the Pharm. I suspect we'll hear lots more about this by November.
June 9, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/POLICY/POLITICS: McKinnell's friends turn and bitch-slap him, by The Industry Veteran

The Industry Veteran is back. He notes a piece I’d missed in which the oh-so-rational editorial board of the Wall Street Journal declared Part D to be a future political liability for their desire to drown the government in a...
May 31, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

PHYSICIANS/PHARMA/POLICY: More Friday fun

I was checking out potential book titles when I cam across this site, Health Care for Dummies. Given that I’ve spent some of the week beating up on the AMA, and spent some of yesterday touching on why the health...
May 26, 2006 in Pharma, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (5)

POLICY/PHARMA: Cato calls the Republicans on the Part D deceipt

I approve of government programs done well. Michael Cannon doesn’t approve of them done much at all. We both disapprove of them being done expensively and then having so-called Conservatives in power lie bold face about their costs and enrollment...
May 11, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack

PHARMA/POLICY: Yet more revisionism in Part D

It’s incredible how a couple of bullshit surveys, dishonestly conducted have changed the rhetoric a little on Part D. Now there’s a very odd article about Part D in The LA Times, which has been speaking truth to one power...
May 8, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

POLICY/PHARMA: Tierney on Limbaugh--A Taste of His Own Medicine

Rush Limbaugh, idiotic conservative and drug-addict—who I hear in 1990 on his show saying that drug addicts should be “written off” and lately was attacking medical marijuana users, has according to Tierney been given A Taste of His Own Medicine...
May 6, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

BLOGS/PHARMA: The sexy world of drug reps--Have the link now

The Daily Show interviews the totally hot Miss Florida who’s also a drug rep and criticizes Jeffrey Avorn for promoting generics using non-hot nurses and pharmacists. Best bit is when they berate a senior for using generics and taking bread...
May 5, 2006 in Blogs, Pharma | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

PHARMA/PHYSICIANS: Attacking the Rx data stream

So perhaps this is getting serious. Doctors Object to Gathering of Drug Data If the A.M.A effort succeeds, "legislators will turn their attention elsewhere, and the industry can hang on to one of its most valuable data sources," according to...
May 4, 2006 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (60) | TrackBack

TECH/PHARMA: Making use of patients while they wait

I have an an article in today’s Health-IT World about technology in the physician waiting room. It features a couple of interesting companies including Phreesia and VisionTree. I met the Phreesia guys in New York recently and played with the...
May 2, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

POLICY/PHARMA: Part D--Lying with numbers

The filthy commies at the Wall Street Journal are out doing themselves this week. Not only attacking Bill McGuire for being a(little bit too) successful capitalist, but now attacking our beloved government on the way it counts Medicare Part D...
April 21, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (5)

POLICY/PHARMA: WHCC-Medicare Part D with AARP and CMS

Abby Block from CMS and John Rother from AARP Abby says 6.4 million in PDPs…29 million have drug coverage overall (although that counts everyone). What have they learned from Part D? A bunch of stuff about monitoring plans and their...
April 19, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

TECH/QUALITY/PHARMA: Active Health used by Mariott

Interesting brief presentation — Mariott uses Active Health Mangement to change its formulary Integrates pharmacy, medical and labs data from one place—inluding diagnosis and runs it against the medical literature based algoritms. They then communicate information to both providers and...
April 18, 2006 in Pharma, Quality, Technology | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/POLICY: Libby on the war on Pain Doctors

Ron Libby, a political scientist at University of North Florida, is one of the few academics looking at the war on drugs. He has amassed an array of evidence showing that the incredible and pernicious behavior of the DEA has...
April 18, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/PHARMA/POLITICS: Losing it with the WaPo

It’s interesting tracking intellectual BS. The latest one is all the surveys selecting only people who have signed up with Part D and then reporting their experience, without mentioning that they’re likely to be happy because it’s a self selected...
April 12, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/PHARMA: Putting out fires...

And if you hadn’t had enough of Part D at THCB today, I’m also up with a brief article about it at TPMCafe’s Drug Bill Debacle site called Putting out fires
March 27, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/PHARMA: Yup some do benefit from Part D. This is not news! And politically it won't matter. with UPDATE

After all the yarling and snapping of the introduction of Part D, there was a curious article in the New York Times on Sunday suggesting that "For Some Who Solve Puzzle, Medicare Drug Plan Pays Off." Of course this is...
March 27, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA/POLICY: Medicare Part D, yet more to and fro, and some on the uninsured too

A long transcript from a conference full of health care journalists (hat-tip Kasier FF) in which Leslie Norwalk from CMS proves that she’s very brave, or maybe even foolhardy. And apparently Medicare Part D was all Al Gore’s idea….. Bob...
March 27, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY: I think Borowitz has got it

From the always good but sometimes brilliant The Borowitz Report. This one finally explains the point of Medicare Part D. U.S. CONFUSES INSURGENTS WITH PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN Military Launches ‘Operation Incomprehensible Program’ Across Iraq In an effort to confuse Iraqi...
March 22, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: Still decent growth on a pretty big number

Pharma companies (or their investors) may be all depressed wishing that the good old days of fat pipelines and long patent protection windows were still here. But now and again it’s worth considering how big Big Pharma actually is. And,...
March 22, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA: Brandweek on Pfizer, Pharmacia, HGH and Rost

It’s all going down on Brandweek’s site — a much longer look at what THCB touched on a few weeks back. You’ll have to login to get the full story, though. (The link is now direct). Suffice it to say...
March 22, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/POLICY: In this game of monopoly drugs the market is working, oh yes

So the new maker old off-patent drug that is needed badly but only by a few people, and for some reason isn’t in the Part D or most other private formularies “notices” that it has a monopoly. So what does...
March 13, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (4)

PHARMA/QUALITY: New York Times discovers compliance

Says here, compliance with drug regimens is a big problem. (Adopt Harry Shearer voice with hard “en” sound in “knew”)” Who knew? Who knew? And McKesson, plus a boat load of other DM, PBM and pharma-related companies (like Pfizer Health...
March 13, 2006 in Pharma, Quality | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/PHYSICIANS: Reimbursements Sway Oncologists' Drug Choices, by Greg Pawelski

Greg Pawelski is not exactly surprised about the latest revelations about oncologists and their use of chemotherapy. A joint Michigan/Harvard study confirms that medical oncologists choose cancer chemotherapy based on how much money the chemotherapy earns the medical oncologist. Just...
March 10, 2006 in Pharma, Physicians | Permalink | Comments (13)

PHARMA: Pfizer, Rost and a look at off-label marketing

Pfizer has got a problem on its hands. Businessweek has had a chat with Peter Rost, the VP fired for accusing Pfizer (and Pharmacia which it bought) of illegally off-label marketing of human growth hormone, the Pharmacia drug Genotropin, and...
March 7, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA/POLICY/POLITICS: Calvinists in the Medicine Cabinet

It wasn't going to be too long before I took the issue of the DEA's assault on physicians and patients over to the political masses in one of my Spot-on columns. Calvinists in the Medicine Cabinet is the result. Go...
March 3, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

PHARMA/POLICY: One estimate of what Part D is wasting, with UPDATE

Dean Baker working under the auspices of the liberal Campaign for America's Future has written a study of what is being wasted on Part D. His number is $80 billion a year!. Given that the whole program was originally supposed...
February 22, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (6)

QUALITY/PHYSICIAN/PHARMA: Test of Survival

Those of you who like your reality dressed up as fiction might like this new book, which Greg Pawelski recommends as telling lots of truth about the oncology-industrial complex. It’s called A Test of Survival and the web site is...
February 17, 2006 in Pharma, Physicians, Quality | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA/TECH: Should big Pharma be blogging? by Shahid Shah

In the light of the recent tattle in the pharma blogosphere of the hijacking of Cialis’ brand identity and Lilly’s apparent inability to do squat about it, Shahid Shah, who besides being a healthcare IT expert is also becoming a...
February 9, 2006 in Blogs, Pharma, Technology | Permalink | Comments (7)

PHARMA/POLICY: Suggestions for advancing beyond indignation & conventional wisdom, by The Industry Veteran

Today I’m off to a meeting on Pay for Performance, so I hope I’ll have something riveting for you all later. Meanwhile, as I’ve overblogged (and been over-exposed) in the past week or so, I thought that this morning I’d...
February 6, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (4)

PHARMA/POLICY: Anyone know about best price?

This is pretty interesting, and it relates to real wonkery AND to more stretching of the truth by my favorite health plan lobbyist, Karen Ignagni. In the article Drug firms to get profits windfall, a Univ of Minnesota Professor estimates...
February 3, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/POLICY: Richard Paey's case hits 60 Minutes

Richard Paey was put in jail for 25 years basically taking pain pills, so that instead the state in Florida can fund his medical care. Oh the prosecutor said that he forged prescriptions, even though at first he wanted to...
February 1, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

TECH/PHARMA: Words of wisdom on the infrastructure for prescribing

So (finally!) the piece I co-authored with Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on the prescribing infrastructure has been published by the California Health Care Foundation. Please go take a look. It's called The Prescription Infrastructure: Are We Ready for ePrescribing? I'll be writing...
January 31, 2006 in Pharma, Technology | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA/HEALTH PLANS/PBMs/POLICY: Meanwhile Ignangi on drug pricing, best price and fraud

I’m listening to the webcast of the KFF Forum on Medicare, and in the middle Karen Ignagni comes out with this gem. But Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, countered that so far, health insurers are...
January 27, 2006 in Health Plans, PBMs, Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

PHARMA: McKinell's over-Exubera-nce

Diabetes sufferers will have to wait a longer for Exubera, an inhaled insulin drug that supporters say transform the lives of people with the condition. Pfizer shares soared this morning after CEO Hank McKinnell said the drug has received FDA...
January 27, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY: Over at TPMCafe, Medicare Part D

I have joined in a coversation about Part D with some other old farts and a couple of young punks (but very smart young punks — I was strugling to learn how to pick my nose at their age, and...
January 25, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (13)

PHARMA/POLICY: Drug coverage in Medicare Catastrophic (1988) and in the Clinton plan (1994), by MedPac

This is taken straight from a hard to navigate PDF document created in 2000 by MedPac (and advisory body on Medicare for the Congress). It’s a good primer on what happened, especially to drug coverage under the by now forgotten...
January 25, 2006 in Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (3)

QUALITY/PHARMA: Statins in the water in the UK, but generic ones

And in more from the UK, statins are now going to be put in the water. Well not quite, but allowed to be given to anyone ever suspected of maybe in the future developing heart disease given to anyone ever...
January 25, 2006 in Pharma, Quality | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA/POLICY/POLITICS/PHYSICIANS: Tierney with some optimism on the DEA's war on doctors

Writing (unfortunately behind the fire-wall) in the NYT, John Tierney attacks the Republicans as being the Party of Pain. With their attempts to stop the Oregon assisted suicide law, and the relentless attack of the DEA on pain doctors, the...
January 24, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLITICS/POLICY/PHARMA: Compare and contrast GWB and LBJ on Medicare

Jonathan Cohn takes a good look at the Medicare implementation now and then, in What Bush could learn from LBJ on Medicare. Not too surprisingly the current screw-up wasn’t evident in 1965, even though the Johnson Administration had only 11...
January 19, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

PHARMA: The gift that keeps giving, or PhRMA being dumb and dumber

Somehow I’ve ended up on Peter Rost’s mailing list. Now he’s a guy who knows a thing or two about the wacky behavior of big pharma. Peter sent me a press release about that novel that PhRMA funded until the...
January 19, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLICY/POLITICS/TECH: Jon Cohn plays Gotcha on Part D

John Cohn finds the December GAO report that says that CMS wasn’t ready for Part D’s launch, and also McClelland's response that the GAO was underestimating CMS. Make that “mis-underestimating”, I think. Here’s what the GAO Report says would be...
January 18, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/POLITICS/QUALITY: Supreme Court upholds Oregon physicians and patients rights

Some slightly good news in the DEA and DOJ’s continued campaign to get into the practice of medicine in the guise of preventing “drug trafficking”, or more accurately imposing the extreme morals of the religious right on the rest of...
January 17, 2006 in Pharma, Policy/Politics, Quality | Permalink | Comments (4)

PHARMA: Whistleblowing and more ways to make a buck in big Pharma, by The Industry Veteran

The Industry Veteran some time ago decided that the only decent career path left in pharma was that of whistleblower. He has more evidence to back his case. Here’s the Veteran’s restrained take on the matter. Here’s another piece of...
January 17, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA: What will it really take for big Pharma to go Hollywood? by The Industry Veteran

The Industry Veteran, who’s opening the year on quite the tear, has been pondering the latest “trend” in the pharma marketing chatter — the idea that Pharma needs to follow the Hollywood model. Here are his thoughts: Here’s an interesting...
January 12, 2006 in Pharma | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/PHARMA/PBMs: Health spending collapses--all the PBMs doing! (No, not really).

So the numbers on national health expenditure are out, and health spending plummeted by 50% in 2004!! Oops, what I meant to say was that health spending only went up by 7.9% — barely enough to trouble the scorers (as...
January 10, 2006 in PBMs, Pharma, Policy | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/PHARMA/PHYSICIANS/POLITICS: Some more publicity about the awful state of pain medication

Finally there is some word getting out about the reign of terror the DEA has been running against pain doctors and its awful impact. This article, called Let's Get Serious About Relieving Chronic Pain picks up from the NEJM article...
January 10, 2006 in Pharma, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/POLITICS/PHARMA: Is Part D the begining of the end for Big Pharma? by The Industry Veteran

THCB’s favorite vituperative contributor, The Industry Veteran, is back with some New Year thoughts. He got what I was up to on NY Eve a little wrong, but may have a closer idea about what the long term effects of...
January 6, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics |