If you take Humira, Remicade, or any similar biologic drug, or if you have any illness that might need to be treated with a biologic, you might be interested in this post from the Wall Street Journal. Look at these numbers: J&J is already a big player in the market with Remicade, which brought in [...]
Thu, July 16 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
This is Senator Dodd (D-CT), from a Politico story on pending health care legislation: “There are some gaps. But there are no gaps in our determination, my determination and that of my colleagues to have a public option, pay-or-play, or biologics,” Dodd said. The public option I get; that’s the proposal to a have a [...]
Tue, June 9 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
One more post on Virginia Postrel, and then I will let it go. First, at the risk of being too macabre, Postrel is only two years out of her cancer fight; as far as I know, most epidemiologists would not consider that “survival”. So, yes, Herceptin might have help put her in remission, but she’s [...]
Tue, April 21 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
In the April issue of the Atlantic Monthly, Virginia Postrel published a love letter to the pharmaceutical industry. In the May issue, she gets a couple of letters back, which I have taken the liberty of excerpting: No society can afford to give every one of its members every available medical treatment. Society has to [...]
Mon, April 20 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
This picture pretty much sums up why you can’t trust the BBC’s science and news coverage; it’s a grab from the Google News – Health feed a couple days ago. Compare the BBC headline -”Homeopathy ‘eases cancer therapy’” – to the CBC headline: Homeopathic remedies offer little cancer-treatment relief. For those unfamiliar with the basic [...]
Thu, April 16 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
PhRMA – the pharmaceutical lobbying group – runs a PR campaign called “Sharing Miracles“, with stories of people who have somehow survived an illness. It’s an appalling exercise in cynicism and exploitation: what you are supposed to conclude from this is that the pharmaceutical industry is responsible for all these miracles, and nobody should ever [...]
Thu, April 2 2009 » Uncategorized » 3 Comments
You might have seen one of the many news reports about the study of colon cancer patients and “information-seeking behavior”. Here’s Reuter’s entry: More patient information may not lead to the best care By Anne Harding NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Colon cancer patients who seek out more information about their care are more likely [...]
Tue, February 24 2009 » Uncategorized » 3 Comments
If you’re taking Remicade or Humira, you will want to read this article: Members of a class of drugs called TNF-alpha blockers nearly doubled the risk of herpes zoster, better known as shingles, among rheumatoid arthritis sufferers in a 5,040-patient German study. Humira, Kineret, and Remicade are all biologic agents called monoclonal antibodies. Each of [...]
Wed, February 18 2009 » Uncategorized » 2 Comments
Because I am missing a length of small intestine, I am totally dependent on cholestyramine. That missing intestine means my gut no longer reabsorbs bile salts effectively. Bile salts cause diarrhea if they pass into the large intestine, but cholestyramine binds to the bile salts and neutralizes them, letting them pass through my system without [...]
Tue, February 17 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
I was all set to take down this article by Virginia Postrel in the March issue of The Atlantic, but Merrell Goozner has done a better a job than I could have. Goozner’s post is long, but worth reading in full. Goozner makes clear that Postrel is wrong wrong wrong on the science, but she’s [...]
Tue, February 17 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
A novel crime against decency by Duncan Cross
