Pharma

Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone I knew should know about this. Please read the following and pass it on.

On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs

were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo..... three thousand percent!

So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves.

'Do as I say, not as I do' seems to be the philosophy of the lawsuit against Columbia University for trying to extend their patent life. Yes, the biotech's are all upset - including Biogen - that Columbia is trying to extend their patent using methods they learned from industry. While I personally don't believe in patents in general, I find it humorous that what goes around is coming around...

CBS Marketwatch is claiming that the success of the recently announced Biogen/IDEC merger hinges on the success of Antegren (a drug, they point out, that wasn't developed at either company). If this is true, we'll have to be extra diligent watching the results of the Phase III trials. There will be huge pressure to present things in the best possible light - which may not be the most conservative light. Keep your guard up while hoping that Antegren is as good as it

Biogen and IDEC Pharmaceuticals, two companies looking for cures for cancer and autoimmune disorders, announced plans Monday to merge in a stock swap, the latest consolidation in the biotech industry.

IDEC, which is based in San Diego, makes the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma drug Rituxan. It had $404.2 million in sales last year. Biogen, with $1.15 billion in sales last year, is best known for its multiple sclerosis drug Avonex.

The FDA had to do a little wrist slapping to Serono over some out of spec marketing materials. Seems they weren't making the risks as obvious as the rewards in their printed materials for Rebif.

Quescor has acquired Nascobal, a nasal gel formulation of Cyanocobalamin USP (Vitamin B-12) currently marketed by Nastech Pharmaceutical Company, Inc. (Nasdaq:NSTK), a leader in nasal drug delivery technology. Although Vitamin B-12 is widely available in oral form, many patients who have Multiple Sclerosis ("MS") and Inflammatory Bowel Disease ("IBD") have severe deficiencies of Vitamin B-12 due to a compromised ability to absorb Vitamin B-12 through the gastrointestinal system, which limits the benefit of oral administration.

Berlex Canada (the folks who bring us Betaseron) has built a new head office in the borough of Pointe-Claire. It won't change your life, but it's a slow MS news day :-)

Here's an interesting article reviewing the structure of Healthology, a health content providing site. The reviewer makes some good points about knowing where your information is coming from and some of the tricks used (funding by companies that are fronts for Pharma, using "real" news reporters, producing information to look like news). I recommend reading it and keeping your skeptic hat on when reading *any* information about MS - including this site (that's what the comments option is for).

The Boston Globe reports on the continuing battle between Biogen and Serono over which is more effective. Personally, I find these relative comparisons tiresome since the result is always that they are basically equally ineffective. If the differences were 30% compared to 80% - that would be worth knowing, but the money and effort and energy to show that both drugs don't help many people very much (but to slightly differing degrees) just all seems wasted to me.

MSN is reporting on the approval of pre-filled Avonex syringes. I never found the mixing to be that big of a bother, it was the IM injection that made it inconvenient to me. The reason they didn't sell it pre-mixed before is that the IFN breaks down more quickly in solution. I wonder how this will affect the delivery and storage times.