Archive » Health care

Sounds like this book speaks some uncomfortable truths about what it’s like to be a sales rep. for a large pharmaceutical company. If you don’t feel like shelling out for the book, you can find a lot of similar stories on the message boards at this site.

Mike Fumento has written two important columns that deserve more attention:
- “Diabetes Foundation Loses its Way”
- “Is Diabetes Cure a Buck Too Far?”
The gist of the columns is that the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) has been so focused on the potential of embryonic stem cell (ESC) research that it has ignored more promising [...]

Myron Levin of the Los Angeles Times reports:
Drug maker Merck & Co. continued to supply infant vaccine containing a mercury-based preservative [thimerosal] for two years after declaring that it had eliminated the chemical.
In September 1999, amid rising concern about the risks of mercury in childhood vaccines, Merck announced that the Food and Drug Administration had [...]

This article describes the results of the latest study that purports to show no relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism:
Researchers looked at the incidence of autism in a Japanese city before and after the withdrawal of the measles, mumps and rubella jab in 1993.
New Scientist reports autism rates kept rising after MMR was withdrawn.
Michael [...]

You all know I’ve had my differences with the Wall Street Journal editorial page. But I have to admit that today’s editorial on the withdrawal of Tysabri, a new multiple sclerosis drug, is very good. The Journal argues persuasively that MS patients would be better served by a product relabeling (such as a black box [...]

Earlier this month a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found no evidence that flu shots reduce deaths among the elderly. This morning brings word from The Lancet that flu shots don’t work at all among another large high-risk group: children under the age of 2. Reuters reports:
There is no evidence that vaccinating [...]

When FDA panelists on COX-2 inhibitors have industry ties it’s considered a big story, but when panelists on federal and state immunization panels have ties to vaccine manufacturers few seem to notice or care. Why is one story more newsworthy than the other?

My fellow opinionated wives, you will love this. Print out and post on the fridge for hubby to read every morning:
LONDON - A woman who keeps quiet during an argument with her husband is four times more likely to die from heart disease and other causes, according to a study published in the American Heart [...]

Public health authorities often give the impression that flu shots are extremely effective at preventing the flu. Except when there are shortages, they urge as many as people as possible to get vaccinated, particularly the elderly. But a new study, published in a top-tier medical journal, suggests that flu shots are far less effective among [...]

Has anyone else noticed how vapid the New York Times‘ editorials on the flu vaccine are? Their editorial last October bemoaned the paucity of vaccine manufacturers but did not not suggest anything–not one thing–that would attract more manufacturers to the market. Today the Times revisits the issue, repeating the platitude that “the vaccine manufacturing process [...]

Bravo for New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who calls today for DDT to be sprayed in malaria-ravaged countries. Here’s the intro:
If the U.S. wants to help people in tsunami-hit countries like Sri Lanka and Indonesia - not to mention other poor countries in Africa - there’s one step that would cost us nothing and [...]

The Seattle Times reports, Preschool obesity rises:
Dr. William Cochran, a pediatric gastroenterologist and nutritionist for the Geisinger Clinic in Danville, Pa., said he sees many youngsters in his weight-management clinic who weigh 300 to 400 pounds. He also is seeing more and more children with diabetes, high blood pressure, even liver disease.
“Some kids are drinking [...]

We often hear from the MSM about “soaring drug costs” and how ultra-profitable Big Pharma companies are ripping everybody off, but for several years the real story at most big pharma companies has been nothing but pain and bad news. Almost every week brings news of new problems, as anyone who owns shares in these [...]

If naproxen were an investigational drug in Phase III clinical trials, would it be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration? Would aspirin? Just wondering.
Update: Neal Boortz notes, “I can guarantee you that some lawyer out there is already trying to get his hands on 1-800-NO-ALEVE.”

Still a very mild season, despite the shortage of the flu vaccine. Not a single pediatric death has been reported so far. Meanwhile, this article reports that demand for flu vaccine shots is ebbing.

“The safety of reimported drugs cannot be guaranteed!”
That’s argument made by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and PhRMA against reimportation of prescription drugs.
But today, this article brings word that the feds have decided to purchase a FDA-unapproved flu vaccine from abroad. Normally, consumers aren’t allowed to use unapproved drugs except in clinical trials, but [...]

I’ve heard about the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, but this is the first article I’ve seen that casts light on how it works.

Interesting article about universities’ role in the suppression of clinical trial data. The article quotes Drummond Rennie, an editor at JAMA, saying, “It takes two to tango, and academics are a part of this dance.” Articles like this one will increase support for an independent drug safety agency, as some have proposed. Related [...]

Reader Richard Morton points me to a Centers for Disease Control web page that provides updates on the incidence of the flu. So far this season, the flu has been mild. As of November 20, 2004, CDC says there has not been a single pediatric death in the entire U.S. arising from flu or influenza-like [...]

Right now many public officials and newspaper editorial boards are debating whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is too lax in its oversight of drugs such as Vioxx. However, this New York Times story about an experimental Parkinson’s drug is a good reminder that some patients–especially those with serious health problems–are willing to [...]

Today’s WaPo editorial:
IN HIS ELECTION campaign, President Bush didn’t put forward a health care plan so much as a handful of ideas about health care, none of which will extend coverage to all Americans and few of which are likely to cut skyrocketing costs. Although some of his suggestions, such as private health savings accounts [...]

Medpundit writes:
it’s been my experience that most physicians are willing to work with their patients to get those bills paid. Some physicians will accept work in kind - carpentry, landscaping, lawn mowing, etc. or even produce. More commonly, they’ll agree to small payments over time. I have a patient who has been paying me $5 [...]

There isn’t one. The New York Times reports:
Most countries contract with several makers, in part to avoid critical dependence on any one supplier. And though countries other than the United States had placed orders with Chiron for a smaller part of their vaccine needs, no other country was so dependent on the Liverpool factory.
In England, [...]

Policymakers on both sides of the aisle are buzzing about the latest idea to expand the federal government’s role in health insurance (New York Times, “Momentum Builds for U.S. Role in Paying Highest Health Costs“).
Evidently, there is an emerging consensus among Beltway health policymakers that it’s not enough that the feds provide or subsidize health [...]

Here’s an article about the millions of Australians who were given a contaminated polio vaccine in the late 1950s and early 1960s (”Millions given infected polio vaccine“):
Australia’s leading experts on the virus, which is known as simian virus 40 or SV40, have found traces of it in human tumour cells and are calling for urgent [...]

The NY Times weighs in on the flu shot shortage in its lead editorial this morning (”An Influenza Vaccine Debacle“). It is the most shallow editorial I’ve read in months. After devoting several paragraphs to the FDA’s failure to prevent contamination at Chiron’s Liverpool plant, the editorial finally gets to the root problem:
Underlying this crisis [...]

Both the NY Times and Washington Post have long pieces this weekend explaining the reasons for the flu shot shortage. Skim them, then read this.
More on the flu shot below.
Update: Check out this clueless Eleanor Clift op-ed in Newsweek. Here’s my favorite part:
If the free market can’t provide flu vaccine, the government should [...]

A couple of readers and at least one blogger have called into question my assertion that the flu shot shortage might lead to more deaths than the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. My statement was based on official CDC statistics–36,000 deaths per year–and my assumption that a flu shot shortage could increase that number [...]

Yesterday my pediatrician informed my husband that our 11-month old son probably will not be able to get the two vaccines that would protect him the most this winter–a flu shot and Prevnar–due to shortages. I can try to get a flu shot at our local supermarket, but to do so I’ll probably need to [...]

There seems to be an emerging consensus not only that Vioxx is a bad drug, but that Merck has known for years about Vioxx’s cardiovascular side effects.
If this were true, why would Merck voluntarily conduct a study that measured Vioxx’s effect on cardiovascular outcomes? Wouldn’t it have been smarter, if Merck knew about Vioxx’s problems [...]