HealthDot Pharma Report - April 13, 2007
In Episode II of the HealthDot Pharma Report we start at the intersection of Social Security, children’s health, pharmaceuticals and alleged murder.
Prosecutors in Brockton, Massachusetts charged two parents with killing their daughter by overdosing her on prescription drugs.
The case alleges that Michael and Carolyn Riley sought Supplemental Security Income, a program administered by the Social Security Administration for disabled children. To get it, they convinced a psychiatrist their daughter Rebecca had both bipolar and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
According to a state police investigator’s report, witnesses told police the Rileys gave their daughter large doses of powerful prescription drugs to keep her quiet and sleeping for long periods.
A medical examiner said she died of a lethal combination of prescription drugs, including a fatal dose of Clonidine, which she had been taking for ADHD.
The Riley’s attorneys blame their daughter’s death on the psychiatrist they sent her to. The allege he irresponsibly medicated her.
Something’s amiss: Rebecca was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 3.
Why do we bring this up? Because a under the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act of 2002, the Food and Drug Administration can request studies about a drug’s impact on children.
Currently, two-thirds of drugs prescribed to children have never been studied or labeled for pediatric use. These include morphine and the depression drug bupropion
The Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act investigates whether drugs that are approved for adults can be studied to see if they work in children and, if so, at what dose levels.
However, the law expires this year unless reauthorized by Congress.
Says Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, “We must strike the right balance between ensuring that incentives to industry are responsible and responding to the urgent need to improve the availability of safe and effective medicines for children,” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement.”
Drug companies willing to undergo such studies can see their patents extended for 6 months. Six Months? That can be lucrative.
What’s in your water? It might not be so fresh and clean with no caffeine.
The New York Times reports that an Environmental Protection Agency study shows that increasing amounts of chemicals from birth control pills, antidepressants, painkillers, shampoos and a host of other compounds are finding their way into the nation’s waterways.
While there’s no evidence that the traces of chemicals are harmful to humans, there’s also difficulty in studying what affect they might have anyway. We Americans are a fairly medicated bunch. It’s tough for researchers to know what’s coming from our water supply, and what’s coming from the pharmacist.
And finally, cancer researchers are finding that purebred dogs may make it easier to isolate cancer-causing genetic mutations.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center are currently testing an innovative cancer vaccine that has proved to be highly successful in dogs.
The vaccine works to tell the immune system that any cancer cells are bad for the body and should be eliminated.
And dogs are great test subjects since they are essentially exposed to the same environmental risks that humans are.
Purebreds are the dogs of choice because it is very easy to trace their genetic history, and isolate cancer-causing genetic mutations.
Interviews
How are pharmaceutical companies reaching consumers? How are they branding themselves? What are the opportunities? And how does advertising direct to consumers actually work?
We brought three marketing experts together to talk about the trends.
You can view the full interview here
What do pharma bloggers have to say about the industry? What is a pharma blogger’s role in the industry?
We asked Ed Silverman of New Jersey’s Star Ledger’s Pharmalot just these questions.
You can view the entire interview here. Ed discusses little players, big players, those in the middle, and the relationship between big pharma and big generics.
Discussion
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