OT:Sharing a link

May 14, 2007

Chinese Traditional Medicine , Twyla <twylahoodah wrote:

>

> science & technology

>

> A SHOT AT MAKING DRUGS SAFER

> Congress could revamp the cozy ties between drugmakers and the

> FDA. Will it?

> http://newsletters.businessweek.com/c.asp?659035 & a74a591a5ff61d61 & 4

Here's a place where you can get the word out to a lot more people

than the members of this group:

http://www.buzzflash.com/

Scroll down a little to the box enclosed in blue on the righthand

side of the page. Click on " What's the buzz? " at the top of the

box. This will take you to a page where you can register as a member

(it's free) and also submit stories to be voted on by other members.

It's also the archives of all the stories that received enough votes

to make it to the buzz-it front page.

Go back to the main buzzflash page. Click on " Create Some Buzz " at

the bottom of the blue box. This will take you to the list of

submitted stories that haven't made it to the front page. You can

vote for stories by clicking on " buzz-it " in the box to the left of

each submission. You also can make comments by clicking

on " comments " at the bottom of a submission. A lot more info often

comes out in the comments section.

There are quite a few people on there who are concerned about medical

matters and about the environment. You'll also want to check back to

see if a story already has been submitted before submitting.

Articles and editorials appearing on blogs are accepted as well as

articles and editorials from newspapers as well as pieces from TV and

radio. Submissions have 24 hours to make it to the front page of buzz-

it. Sometimes a story is so important that the buzzflash staff will

move it to the main section of the front page of buzzflash.

One of the advantages of submitting to buzz-it and voting is that it

has the potential to reach tens of thousands of people. Also, a lot

of professional journalists read buzz-it and buzzflash. They

sometimes decide to do a follow-up story on something they've read on

buzzflash.

May 14, 2007

Hi Victoria...thanks so much for the buzzflash tip. I just read this New York

Times editorial and thought I would post it as the Times can often bean organ

for instigating change./th

Published: May 14, 2007

The explosion in the use of three anti-anemia drugs to treat cancer and

kidney patients illustrates much that is wrong in the American pharmaceutical

marketplace. Thanks to big payoffs to doctors, and reckless promotional ads

permitted by lax regulators, the drugs have reached blockbuster status. Now we

learn that the dosage levels routinely injected or given intravenously in

doctors’ offices and dialysis centers may be harmful to patients.

As Alex Berenson and Andrew Pollack laid bare in The Times on May 9, wide use

of the medicines — Aranesp and Epogen, from Amgen; and Procrit, from Johnson &

Johnson — has been propelled by the two companies paying out hundreds of

millions of dollars in so-called rebates. Doctors typically buy the drugs from

the companies, get reimbursed for much of the cost by Medicare and private

insurers, and on top of that get these rebates based on the amount they have

purchased.

Although many doctors complain that they barely break even or even lose money

on the costly drugs, for high-volume providers the profits can be substantial.

One group of six cancer doctors in the Pacific Northwest earned a profit of

about $1.8 million last year thanks to rebates from Amgen, while a large chain

of dialysis centers gets an estimated 25 percent of its revenue, and a higher

percentage of its profits, from the anemia drugs. It seems likely that these

financial incentives have led to wider use and the prescribing of higher doses

than medically desirable.

Although the drugs are deemed valuable in fighting severe anemia, there is

scant evidence they help much in moderate cases and some evidence that high

doses can be dangerous. Half of the dialysis patients in this country are now

receiving enough of the drugs to raise their red blood cell counts to levels

deemed risky by the Food and Drug Administration. And last week a panel of

cancer experts urged the F.D.A. to impose additional restrictions on use of the

drugs in patients receiving cancer chemotherapy, based on studies that the drugs

might make some cancers worse or hasten the deaths of patients.

Use of Procrit has also been fueled by television ads suggesting that it makes

elderly cancer patients more energetic and, pushing all the emotional buttons,

allows them to keep up with their grandchildren. That claim has not been

established to the F.D.A.’s satisfaction, and a top official said last week that

his agency owes the public a good explanation for why it allowed the ads to

continue.

With any luck, the advisory panel’s concerns should cause many oncologists to

think twice before dispensing the anti-anemia drugs. But the surest way to slow

the overprescribing is to stop the rebates. Federal laws already bar drug

companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines in pill form. That

prohibition should be extended to injected and intravenous medicines.

victoria_dragon <victoria_dragon wrote: