AmeriKa's health care system is about $$$$, not care!!!
"New diabetes pill passes FDA heart test" by Bloomberg News | March 31, 2009
WASHINGTON - A new diabetes pill from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and AstraZeneca PLC did not increase the risk of heart attack or stroke in a US review, boosting shares in New York and London as investors bet the drug will be approved.
Oh, I have no doubt about that!
FDA Protects Big Pharma While Telling Americans "F*** You!"
FDA Doesn't Care About Cancer
FDA Approval to Immunize Drug Companies From Lawsuits
Isn't it nice to know that the people allegedly looking out for your health are the ones who are only interested in corporate profits?
The medicine, saxagliptin, meets new guidelines for cardiovascular safety, according to a staff report posted yesterday on the Food and Drug Administration's website. Outside advisers to the FDA will consider the findings when they meet tomorrow to discuss whether the companies should be allowed to sell the drug in the United States under the name Onglyza.
Drug makers are striving to introduce new treatments for the 24 million Americans with diabetes, as some older therapies pose heart risks and fail to control blood sugar. Bristol-Myers and AstraZeneca need new products to revive sales and replace drugs facing generic competition, and analysts have been worried that safety concerns at the FDA may preclude saxagliptin's approval....
An FDA panel will also consider liraglutide, an experimental shot for diabetes made by Novo Nordisk A/S. The agency usually follows the recommendations of its advisers.
--more--"
Dyax Corp., of Cambridge, yesterday said that it cut 60 positions, about one-third of its workforce, becoming the latest Massachusetts biotechnology company to slash its headcount to conserve cash.
Arena Pharmaceuticals said yesterday that its experimental drug to treat obesity had succeeded in its first late-stage clinical trial, producing results it said would be good enough for regulatory approval. But some analysts said the results were unimpressive because patients on the drug for a year lost an average of only 5.8 percent of their body weight....
I just heard a cash register click.
The company, based in San Diego, is one of three small California drug makers in the final stages of developing obesity treatments. The other two companies, Orexigen Therapeutics and Vivus, have already presented data from late-stage clinical trials, but all three companies have other trials in progress.
Start here:
"Every table was set with a single fresh rose (from the rose gardens outside, I was told) and a full complement of three forks, two knives, and two spoons in silver plate..... The buffet tables could have graced a high-end ocean liner. I watched a gentleman in colorful African garb pile his plate with slices of roast sirloin and potatoes mashed with feta cheese. A post-retirement-age couple from the East Side scarfed up most of the egg rolls, though more came out quickly....
I made for the roast leg of lamb with rosemary sauce after I filled my salad plate with chilled asparagus and slices of a duck and pork terrine.... fresh tomato soup and bowls of pasta primavera.... The dessert buffet table practically groaned under a spread of apple and pumpkin pies, cheesecakes, tarts, half a dozen cheeses, sliced fruits, bowls of berries, and, off to one side, three urns of ice cream"
And that was just for LUNCH!
Also see: Globalist Gluttons Gorge Themselves
With two-thirds of Americans said to be obese or overweight, a successful obesity drug could have huge sales.
So WHO SAID you are FAT, America?
Gonna get the KIDS HOOKED on ANOTHER DRUG so the RICHERS can EAT MORE, huh? Because THAT'S WHAT THIS IS: making dough off of starvation!
And experts say there is a need for better drugs because the existing ones are hampered by side effects.
Ever notice the side effects are worse than the illness?
Because of safety concerns, though, developing a successful obesity drug can be treacherous.
Here we go: Yup, a billion-eight taken out of taxpayer's pockets so the state can throw money away to lying biotechs even though "it's never been easy to turn a profit."
Flush all that money away, too, taxpayer.
Need insult to injury?
See: The Money Pipeline From Massachusetts to Israel
Are you you surprised?
Sanofi-Aventis, Merck, and Pfizer all discontinued work on experimental drugs last year because of concerns that the drugs, which all worked by similar mechanisms, could contribute to depression and suicidal thoughts.
How come ALL their POISONS do this, readers?
Arena said its drug, called lorcaserin, which works by a different mechanism, did not show psychiatric side effects. Even more importantly, the company said, there was no sign the drug damaged heart valves.
Pffft!
Heart effects are relevant because lorcaserin works in a way similar to Wyeth's drug fenfluramine, which was part of the fen-phen combination before it was pulled from the market after being linked to heart valve damage.
So that crap is back on the market, huh? Pffft!
Arena says lorcaserin can stimulate a receptor in the brain that is thought to regulate food intake without binding to somewhat similar receptors that cause the heart problems. But the effectiveness data left analysts debating the drug's value....
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NEW YORK - Heart stents made by Boston Scientific Corp., the biggest seller of the artery-clearing devices, were less effective in studies than those from Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic Inc.
Taxus Liberte, Boston Scientific's newest stent, required more repeat procedures than products from Medtronic and J&J in a South Korean study reported this weekend at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Orlando, Fla. In a separate trial, two Taxus models were linked with an 88 percent higher risk of heart-related deaths than Abbott's Xience stent.
I wouldn't want them going back into me all th time; would you?
Stent makers are competing for a $4 billion market....
Once again, it is the MONEY that is important (why all this is in the business section, huh?), not YOUR HEALTH!!!!!
Also see: Criminal Biotech
A Woburn biotech firm is expected to say today that it has raised $40 million in financing.... BioVex Inc. said the finance round is its fourth since it was launched in England in 1999, and brings the total invested in the firm to $120 million. The company moved to the United States in 2005....
BioVex's methods involve using a modified cold-sore virus that is injected into a skin-cancer tumor. The virus then invades and kills cancerous cells within the tumor. The dying cells release additional virus particles to continue the attack. Healthy cells are not affected, the company said, and the virus has been disabled so it doesn't cause cold sores.
In the meantime, the company says, the virus stimulates a patient's immune system to seek out and destroy tumor cells in other parts of the body where the disease has spread. With the expected $60 million in funding, BioVex will have enough money to operate through mid-2010....
So they will be ALL SET for a few years; how about you, American?
The firms currently investing in BioVex have previously put money into the company. They include lead investor Forbion Capital Partners, formerly part of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO Bank NV, Credit Agricole Private Equity, Innoven Partners, New Science Ventures, Triathlon Medical Venture Partners, and Scottish Equity Partners.
--more--"There is money out there somewhere, America, despite what you hear.
It's just that none of it is for you.
