Every so often we at the Health Blog tear ourselves away from the computer just long enough to meet some real people. This weekend we had the pleasure of moderating a couple panels at the annual get-together of Harvard Business School alumni and students interested in health care. The session on the Swiss health system [...]
Researchers shed a little more light on what went so badly wrong with Pfizer’s torcetrapib (pictured) during a presentation at the American Heart AssociationÂ’s confab in Orlando. Besides boosting HDL, or good, cholesterol levels, torcetrapib sharply increased risks of death during trials. Pfizer spiked the mammoth drug-development program last December after torcetrapib spurred an increase [...]
New York City attracted nearly 44 million tourists last year. A small number of them came to kill themselves.A study published in the current issue of the Journal of Urban Health found that out-of-towners accounted for more than one in 10 suicide deaths in Manhattan from 1990-2004. Midtown marks the final destination of choice for [...]
WellCare Health Plans disclosed this morning that it has learned of a whistle-blower lawsuit brought against the company on Oct. 25. That was the day after 200 government agents raided its Tampa headquarters and interviewed top execs and board members. WellCare said the whistle-blower’s employment was terminated on Oct. 1.As some uncertainty about the probe [...]
A Mayo Clinic study aims to do for Alzheimer’s what the landmark Framingham Heart Study did for heart disease: discover early warning signs that can ultimately guide doctors and patients in preventing or limiting illness.Because Alzheimer’s is a progressive condition that chips away at mental function over time, there should be early indications that a [...]
Canadian drug sales to U.S. patients are falling, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. The U.S. dollar’s decline against the Canadian loonie and price increases up north are two reasons why. But the biggest factor behind the drop in Canadian drug imports appears to be the nearly two-year-old Medicare prescription-drug benefit. Sales by Canadian Internet pharmacies fell [...]
Wyeth’s lame duck CEO lashed out against the FDA in an interview with the Financial Times, charging that the U.S. regulator is “establishing monopolies” by denying approval to drugs that treat conditions with existing treatments.Three of Wyeth’s medicines-in-waiting have been delayed or rejected by FDA this year, which the Health Blog last week highlighted as [...]
As investors await Wall StreetÂ’s verdict on the conflicting results of the big study of Eli LillyÂ’s anti-clotting drug prasugrel, here are two more ideas to ponder from two prominent cardiologists. Eric Topol, the multi-titled director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla and a leader of some of the largest clinical trials [...]
Bayer is pulling its anti-bleeding drug Trasylol from the market, the WSJ reports, in light of growing evidence that the drug carries a higher risk of death than similar drugs.The German chemical and drug maker called the halt temporary, while the company awaits the results of a Canadian study of the medicine’s use in the [...]
In the statin wars, there’s little question that AstraZenecaÂ’s cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor is the most powerful when it comes to lowering LDL, the bad cholesterol, and giving a boost to good HDL.But the company lacks–and craves–for Crestor what arch-rival Pfizer has for Lipitor, the worldÂ’s biggest selling drug, and what Merck and Bristol-Myers long had [...]
