Politics

The NIH's web site has this interesting chart breaking down their spending by disease. Don't do too many comparisons with Multiple Sclerosis or you might need some of the "high blood pressure" dollars. Obesity gets more than 3 times as much funding, for example.

From the MS Focus newsletter:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have established a new policy regarding several injectable drugs, one of which is Avonex®. This is a definite plus for people with MS, currently covered by Medicare, as this costly drug will now be more affordable. We can only hope that the other approved MS therapies (Betaseron®, Copaxone® and Rebif®) won't be far behind. As of August 1st, 2002, Medicare is expected to cover the cost of Avonex injections. When Avonex was first approved back in 1996, it was covered my Medicare.

The Washington Post has this article about proposed legislation that would reduce the power of the FDA by opening up some of their duties to commercial companies. Tied to this legislation is a proposal to have medical device compnies pay millions in "user fees" to help support the struggling FDA. This does not sound like a smart move to me. Does it make sense to have the companies being reviewd be paying the very reviewer who controls a significant portion of their financial future? I see bad collusion coming out

Medline has this story on a new report that recommends that clinical trials that are too small to be statistically significant should not be done and are, in fact, unethical. It's hard not to follow up that revealation with something very sarcastic. But let's take the 'nice' tack and say it's good to see people recognizing the flaws in the system. They don't even mention the immense waste of tax dollars involved in conducting these under-powered studies (far more important than the well-being of the participants, right?

bmj.com has this story that discusses the ethics of paying doctors to recruit their patients to clinical trials. Personally, it was only recently that I learned that this happened. All of a sudden my doctor wanting me to try out an experimental treatment seems a lot less about concern for my health. I'm not saying Drs. disregard their patients best interest, but the system is currently set up to run in that direction.

Reuters reports on a study that examines the 15 costliest medical illnesses in the United States on a population-wide and per capita basis, which finds little correlation between how disabling a disease was to patients and how much society spent on treating the disease. For example, ailments such as mood disorders and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (which include emphysema and chronic bronchitis) had the greatest gap between the level of disability and the amount of money spent on the disease.

The Washington Post is reporting that President Bush's bioethical advisory council has completed its highly anticipated report on human cloning without reaching a consensus as to whether U.S. scientists should be allowed to conduct research involving cloned human embryos. Rather than making a single recommendation to the president on the ethics of making cloned human embryos for research, the council's report, scheduled to be released this week, offers two competing opinions, according to committee members and others familiar with its contents.

The partisan prescription drug plan duel continues in Washington, according to a story in the Washington Post. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has issued an analysis suggesting the Republican plan would reduce the price of prescriptions by 60 to 85 percent. That conclusion's based on a feature of the GOP bill in which Medicare patients would buy drug coverage directly from insurance companies or private health plans -- which proponents say would promote competition and larger discounts. Critics counter the insurance industry would not sell policies for drug coverage alone.

In an amazing coincidence, reports the Washington Post, pharmaceutical companies were among 21 donors paying $250,000 each for red-carpet treatment at last night's GOP fundraising gala starring President Bush -- an event held just two days after Republicans unveiled a prescription drug plan the industry is backing. Robert Ingram, GlaxoSmithKline PLC's chief operating officer, was the chief corporate fundraiser for the gala; his company gave at least $250,000. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade group funded by the drug companies, kicked in $250,000, too.

Reuters reports that Dean outlined a three-part proposal at the annual Princeton Conference, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Council on Health Care Economics and Policy. For children, he said the rest of the nation should emulate Vermont, which already has essentially universal coverage for those under age 18 through the Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Programs. Under his plan, states would be required to cover everyone through age 22, "because those between 18 and 22 are not that expensive, and if you give them a voucher they're likely to use it to buy a Harley,".