Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? Tis the middle of the week and that means a cup or three of stimulation is in order. Please feel free to join us. This will be another busy day as we go out of our way to forage for documents and attempt to contact the uncontactable (this is not really a word, but we enjoy the imagery). We trust you will be equally busy, so here are a few tidbits to get you started. Hope your day goes well and drop us a note if you come across anything interesting...
Court To Review Appeal of PA Risperdal Dismissal (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Piramal To Buy Decision Resources For $635 Million (Hindu Business Line)
UK's NICE Backs J&J Zytiga Prostate Cancer Med (Dow Jones)
The Run-Up To The ASCO Meeting (Dow Jones)
Eight Drugs To Watch At ASCO (Xconomy)
UK'S NICE Delays Drugs For Years: Report (Daily Mail)
Family With Alzheimer's Gene Gets Roche Drug In Trial (San Francisco Chronicle)
Pfizer Cuts 50 Jobs At Estrogen Facility (Alberta Farm Express)
MSF Calls Global Vaccine Plan Flawed (Pharma Times)
BASi Plans More Cost Cutting (Outsourcing Pharma)
Pfizer Torisel Cancer Trial Failed To Best Bayer Drug (Pharma Times)
FDA Clears New Bristol-Myers Plant (Associated Press)
EDITOR'S NOTE: Please check this post for updates
morning coffee pic thx to chichacha on flickr
2 Comments
Yeah! The excessive hype in the multi-billion dollar cancer business, where a few extra months of survival counts as a breakthrough, and makes tons of money. That explains the spectacle that is ASCO!
The FDA has never approved a drug for cancer that was not patented or marketed or produced by a major pharmaceutical company. Today, the trend is towards more expensive cancer therapies with some costing up to $100,000 per patient per year.
Millions of cancer patients suffer because profitability, not efficacy and safety, is ultimately determining what cancer therapies are available to patients.
The American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) meeting is the premier cancer research convention for basic and translational research. The AACR was the original cancer research organization that pre-dated its sister organization - ASCO.
The focus of the AACR meetings is basic research and the presentations are often geared toward PhD level scientific discovery. The meetings are the most informative for it provides insights into therapy options that may not arrive in the clinical arena for many years.
AACR presentations continue to diverge from those at the ASCO meetings. Some of the observers at this year's meeting were not sure they heard the word "chemotherapy" a single time. That is, all of the alphabet soup combinations that make up the sessions at ASCO are nowhere to be found at the AACR meetings.