For at least several decades, telling the elderly to get an annual flu shot seemed like a no brainer. After all, seniors are often in more fragile health, and a bout of influenza can be debilitating. Moreover, it can lead to pneumonia and other serious conditions.
But new data suggests that the flu shot doesn’t actually reduce deaths among the elderly. This contradicts a study published in 2007 that suggested that influenza immunization can actually reduce deaths in community dwelling elders. If the flu shot doesn’t save lives, is it still “worth it” to spend on promotion and delivery of the …read more

Monthly premiums for Medicare drug plans will increase by 10%, or about $3, in 2009. Seniors, on average, will pay $28/month dependent upon their particular plan. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says the increase is right in line with the increase in drug costs, but the Medicare Rights Center says that the increase is higher than the Social Security cost of living increase and that the government should be doing more to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
Are you enrolled in a Medicare drug plan? If so, what do you think about the 2009 increase?
Sources:
image: picapp
“2009 Medicare drug …read more

Expensive drugs are hardly new, but Congress is now investigating rising drug prices that include price hikes of 100% or more for some medications.
Why can drug companies raise prices on some drugs without a huge consumer backlash?
First, some of these drugs are for exceedingly rare conditions. In these cases, the companies may not be able to keep drugs on the market at a lower price because of a small potential market and high manufacturing costs.
For some other drugs, prices can be raised because consumers don’t feel much of the pinch. For example, coverage for inpatient care and infused/intravenous drugs can …read more

New Alzheimer’s Drug Discouraging but Moving Forward
Elan will go ahead with larger trials of its Alzheimer’s drug, bapineuzumab, despite disappointing results in smaller trials, little fanfare, and falling company stocks. A desperate need for Alzheimer’s treatments drives the drug forward, albeit with little hope.
FDA Orders a Prescription Label Change
For the first time since a 2007 law that allows the FDA to order a prescription label to be changed was put into place, the agency has told biotech. company, Amgen, to change labels on drugs used to treat chemotherapy-induced anemia to indicate the possibility of the drugs iworsening the effects of …read more

The Food and Drug Administration has ordered pharmaceutical giant Amgen to revise labels on its growth factor products, which stimulate the production of blood cells and are used in patients with low blood counts undergoing treatment for diseases such as kidney disease and cancer. Some data released in the past year has shown that these drugs may actually be dangerous for cancer patients if used too prolifically. Sales of Amgen’s products have been falling since this data was released; moreover, Medicare has cut back coverage/reimbursement for some uses of the drugs and narrowly restricted their use — these drugs are …read more

As a researcher and strategist in oncology, I’m always excited to hear topics that I discuss every day come up on the news for public discussion. Last night was one example when I heard this fantastic segment on WHYY radio as part of the Radio Times program about the high cost of chemotherapy drugs. (Audio file here.)
Guests on the show were Dr. Neal Meropol, a gastrointestinal (GI) specialty oncologist from Fox Chase Cancer Center and Dr. Art Caplan, a bio-ethicist at U. Penn. They had a bunch of interesting things to say about how society is responding and how health …read more

More Than 300 New Meds Being Developed to Combat Mental Illness
A new report shows that U.S. pharmaceutical companies are developing 300+ new medicines to help those suffering from the wide range of mental illnesses. These new developments, which are all in clinical trials or awaiting FDA approval, include 89 medicines targeting dementias. The report and drug descriptions can be found here.
New U.S. Drug Application Submitted for Type 2 Diabetes Treatment
Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca have submitted a drug application for Onglyza (saxagliptin) to treat Type 2 Diabetes. The companies also simultaneously submitted a Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the European Medicines …read more

Hillary Clinton spoke out Friday in opposition to a Bush administration proposal that would cut federal funding to hospitals offering contraception such as birth control pills and other pregnancy prevention methods by more or less rebranding these contraceptives as abortion. The proposed law would also back health care providers who believe it is their right to not provide contraception if they have a moral opposition to doing so.

Image by seiu_international on Flickr
The proposal in question relates to a Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) memo that defines abortion as any measures, including prescription drugs such as birth control pills, …read more

Biotech Company Warns of Damaged Vials of Breast Cancer Medication
Genentech has sent a letter to health care providers warning that there have been complaints of broken/damaged vials of its Herceptin 440 mg and BWFI (bacteriostatic water for injection) diluent used to treat HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. The company states that broken/damaged vials carry a small risk of loss of sterility which could cause infections in patients.
Cholesterol Medications Get the Okay for Some Children
The American Academy of Pediatrics has released new recommendations for cholesterol screening and treatment in children. Screening for children over age 2 who have risk factors for heart …read more

The WSJ reports that patients aren’t the only ones stung by pricesfor Avastin and other expensive cancer drugs. Physicians are also getting burnt. While most drugs are prescribed directly to patients and picked up at a pharmacy, leaving the patient and/or insurance company with the bill (and the pharmacy with the overhead), most cancer drugs are delivered IV, and physicians must purchase them up front before a patient arrives for an infusion. As it may take up to 90 days (or occasionally more) for reimbursement to come through from a patient’s insurer for a drug, physicians are left footing the …read more