121–130 of 189 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you like this source better? https://synapse.patsnap.com/blog/what-are-the-types-of-pharm... ?
It’s somebody’s random blog instead of three published, peer reviewed articles. I’m not sure what you expect to hear
If you like, here is a paper from the Vanderbilt law review: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?a...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm in the US, and there are a couple of wrinkles to this: insurance typically won't cover off label use, so patients end up paying the full cost of the medication, and if there is a big enough market, I believe companies can patent the new use even if the patents for the original use have run out. Doctors here are allowed to prescribe them though.
> insurance typically won't cover off label use I’m in the US. This is not true. Insurance will have prior authorization rules for certain drugs that are expensive that require the doctor to submit documentation of the condition, but in most cases the common medication is simply covered if prescribed. The insurance company does not receive documentation of every condition for every prescription to determine if the pr…
I have a little insight here from working with ophthalmologists. When the article mentions "using a cancer drug to treat a leading cause of blindness" it's talking about using Bevacizumab (brand name Avastin) to treat macular degeneration. Avastin and Lucentis are molecularly the same drug. The difference is that Avastin isn't packaged to be injected into eyeballs, and Lucentis is. Also, Avastin costs about $50/dose,…
How does a lowly pharmacy transform a drug that is not for eye injection into one that is?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Notice I was sure to include ‘revival of corporate R & D divisions’ in the argument? Bell Labs is the archetype - if corporations can do a better job of applied R & D, let them. If corporations are upset about publicly funded research generating open-source discoveries that upset the monopolistic apple cart, that’s not an argument about improving efficiency - that’s an argument about maximizing profits and investor r…
> The real question is, what is the metric of ‘success’ - improved public health for the entire population at low cost, or bloated returns for pharmaceutical investors? This is a false dichotomy and this kind of zero sum thinking is exactly the root of so much misunderstanding of economics that's all the rage these days (and probably forever). Wealth is created by innovation, not transfered. "Rent seeking" is wealth…
Want common good, start creating disdain for the wealths in societies.
I’m currently on Spravato, which is fully emblematic of how broken the incentives in the US healthcare system are. Spravato is esketamine - a modified version of ketamine. Ketamine is made up of mirror image molecules and esketamine is the right-handed molecule. They did this because ketamine is off-patent so they needed to modify it in order to patent it, however there is evidence that esketamine is a less effective…
If every drug created with taxpayer dollars at government-funded research institutions was open-sourced, there would be a collapse in monopoly control of drug manufacturing and that would lower prices significantly. The question is then, if corporations can no longer acquire IP rights to drugs created by taxpayer-funded research programs and transferred to their exclusive control (eg if Bayh-Dole is repealed in the U…
This all assumes that the government will do an equal or better job spending money than companies that rely on spending that money well to exist. What will actually happen is that the government department of repurposing drugs will be efficient once and then get their budget reduced and never be efficient again. Next time they'll make sure to spend every last cent and not worry about the over budget boondoggle that's…
I have a little insight here from working with ophthalmologists. When the article mentions "using a cancer drug to treat a leading cause of blindness" it's talking about using Bevacizumab (brand name Avastin) to treat macular degeneration. Avastin and Lucentis are molecularly the same drug. The difference is that Avastin isn't packaged to be injected into eyeballs, and Lucentis is. Also, Avastin costs about $50/dose,…
How does a lowly pharmacy transform a drug that is not for eye injection into one that is?
I’m currently on Spravato, which is fully emblematic of how broken the incentives in the US healthcare system are. Spravato is esketamine - a modified version of ketamine. Ketamine is made up of mirror image molecules and esketamine is the right-handed molecule. They did this because ketamine is off-patent so they needed to modify it in order to patent it, however there is evidence that esketamine is a less effective…
> It would be in the insurance companies’ interests to band together to fund the research so they can save huge amounts of money in the long term but they do not do this. Insurance companies do not want cheaper care. In the US, insurance companies must spend 80% of premiums on care. So if you pay $1k/mo, they have to pay out at least $800/mo in care. (Not to you specifically, but averaged out across all subscribers.)…
Good lord.
Related, one of my all time favorite articles: https://www.propublica.org/article/revlimid-price-cancer-cel...
At this point maybe the best solution is door to door doctors using AI.