Will personal mapping of DNA become the next wellness and health trend? Two companies, Navigenics and 23andMe are banking on exactly that.
Both 23andMe and Navigenics made news on Wednesday when a California court judged that they may continue to offer their services in that state. Prior to the ruling, the California Department of Public Health had issued “cease and desist” letters to thirteen companies offering similar services, but none as prominent as 23andMe or Navigenics, which have benefited from buzz and PR in recent months both within and outside of the health care industry and health care information worlds. The …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

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

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

Reports coming out of Poland have potentially linked a trial of a new bird flu vaccine to the deaths of 21 homeless people:
Three Polish doctors and six nurses are facing criminal prosecution after a number of homeless people died following medical trials for a vaccine to the H5N1 bird-flu virus.

The medical staff, from the northern town of Grudziadz, are being investigated over medical trials on as many as 350 homeless and poor people last year, which prosecutors say involved an untried vaccine to the highly-contagious virus.
Authorities claim that the alleged victims received £1-2 to be tested with what they thought …read more

 Commenter follow_the_ money had the following to say on my June 24th post about a  JAMA article raising questions about the safety of RFID in hospitals (reprinted from comment section): 
“this appears to be waiting for a good reporter
The “TNO Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, Leiden” is listed as one of the “Author Affiliations” for the RFID study (http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/299/24/2884).
A recent announcement (May 2008) was made regarding strengthened collaboration between TNO and Sintef, another research organization in Europe similar to TNO (http://www.mwjournal.com/search/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_5758&SearchWord=TNO) .
Wilfred Booij is a senior scientist at Sintef.
Wilfred Booij is also CTO of “Sonitor Technologies”.
What does Sonitor Technologies do? …read more

Canada Investing Over $1 billion in Research and Development, and Hopes to Invest More
Canada’s biopharmaceutical sector has made great strides in research and development, and has high hopes for even more progress.
Cymbalta Now Approved for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia
Cymbalta, a serotonin- norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor originally approved to treat depression and anxiety, has now been approved by the FDA to help manage fibromyalgia. This is the second pain disorder for which Cymbalta has been approved; the other is diabetic nerve pain. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts about meds typically used to treat depression now being using to treat pain.
FDA …read more

A Boston Globe editorial is arguing for “full and accurate disclosure of potential conflicts that accepting drug company consulting and speaking fees could pose.” The op-ed is written in response to the recent discovery that psychiatrist Joseph Biederman of Harvard and others had failed to disclose consulting fees and other finances received from pharma companies — an error (whether by omission or commission) that violates Harvard’s conflict of interest policies and has caught the eye of Senator Grassley (R – Iowa).

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled today that Merck is not responsible for covering medical monitoring costs for individuals who take Vioxx but who have not claimed injuries from the drug. This piece of news is one of few bright spots for Merck when it comes to Vioxx, which was pulled from the market about four years ago after a study showed it doubled the risk for cardiac adverse events including myocardial infarction (heart attack) and stroke. The good news brought Merck’s stock up by 39 cents. Merck has had a rough year, but this ruling might be a sign …read more