Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler J.P.'s office

Most junkies would have been satisfied with "No."

Seriously, JP, you know why and how much I'm interested in this stuff. I really appreciate such a complete response.

It only confirms, again, what has seemed to me to be the case for decades. The whole BigPharma thing has always been a slippery slope---evil, but necessary. Throw in the FDA and the CDC, et al, and it's a gigantic stew; none too tasty either.

Living in a city with 5 teaching hospitals (6--one in the 'burbs), I get to see things in Phase II or III (been there, done that) all the time. Some of the medical oncological advances recently here have been amazing. The psych med thing appears to be kind of its own beast.

However, there are people here in those trials with awesome results, then the FDA says NO and these people are left hanging. Then there are the shortages that have begun of late for some life and death chemo meds. Salmonella in the albumen? Fish livers tainted with mercury? I don't know.

MGH is starting a CGS study (not my thing--I give more grief than I get), but I didn't know if there was a "new" drug involved. So, obviously not, eh?

And if you can write '...anything you want,' then you can write ...anything I want.

You owe me for the Sox debacle, you selfish bastard!

Sounds like the kind of thing that would be done with currently available meds, i.e. taking antidepressants and/or PTSD treatments as candidates for a new indication.

As you may know, every time a drug company gets a new indication for their med, their patent gets extended by 6 months. For example, Zoloft was launched with an FDA indication for major depressive disorder and had, I'd estimate, an original patent lifespan of 10 years (depends on how fast it came to market, another story). Then, Pfizer does more studies and gets more approvals/indications: Panic Disorder. OCD. PTSD. Social Phobia. Pediatric OCD.

Result? 2-3 more years of patent exclusivity = profits. So the drug companies are motivated to find every possible use for their meds. This is generally a good thing, in that the uses are appropriate and clinically helpful. And those extra studies do cost money, so I imagine that's the rationale for the patent extension.

JP, I just wanted to say "Thank You" for taking the time to write so informatively and concisely on this topic. You've really helped me look at the drug industry and medicine in ways I had not considered before.

Oh, yeah, and where the hell is my refill?

Thanks, Tom and Bob.

Not a problem. After all, I've got to do something to make up for my lack of audio cred.

Both Tom and I gave you every opportunity in our posts to take corrective action. All you ever have to do to maintain all the cred with us you could ever want, is to start writing--- preferrably, on 3 x 4" paper with your name on top and you signature on the bottom.

Oh, and I liked your sig better when I thought it was penned by you. You can start maintaining your cred right now by sharing Dr. Rivera's ph# with Tom and me.

I'm still waiting for the scene where he gets seduced by Jessica Alba as a drug rep.

Me too.

Sorry. She's too committed to sign on for the sequel. Her role will now be played by Chaz Bono.

Public Service Announcement of the day featuring Ken Jeong: actor, comedian, physician.

BRILLIANT simply BRILLIANT.
I would not doubt that this truly saves a life some day.