October 2nd, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in News
Tags: Allergan, Botox, FDA, Government, Law Suit, Lawyers, Pharmaceuticals, Red Tape, REMS
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I was reading my daily MedPage Today news, when I came across this amusing example of regulatory unintended consequences. As we all know, pharmaceutical companies are not allowed to promote off-label uses of their medications – doing so is punishable with billions of dollars in fines (just ask Pfizer). But a new set of rules created by the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) program essentially requires Allergan to provide safety information about off-label uses of the drug — uses that are illegal for them to discuss.
So Allergan has to file a law suit to resolve the issue of being required (by the government) to do something the government considers criminal.
And the winner is?
Lawyers!
October 2nd, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Expert Interviews, News, Video
Tags: ABC, Adults, CDC, Channel 8, Dave Lucas, Flu, Hepatitis, HPV, Immunization, Immunize.org, Influenza, News, Pneumovax, shingles, Tetanus, Vaccination, Vaccination Rates, Vaccine, Vaccines
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We’ve all heard about the importance of getting our flu shots this season, but did you know that there are 10 vaccines commonly recommended for adults? I spoke with Dave Lucas at ABC News about the low rates of adult vaccinations in the US, and encouraged people to ask their doctors if they’re up to date with their vaccinations.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi6HnmHIHCA
On September 30th I participated in a social media event with the Immunization Action Coalition and learned from Executive Director, Dr. Deborah Wexler that: Read more »
October 1st, 2009 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News
Tags: Cancer, Dextran, Iron Oxide, MRI, Nanoparticles, NIST, Oncology, Radiology, Sugar
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An international team of collaborators from a number of academic institutions and a couple pharmaceutical firms has been working with researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to study how special sugar coated iron oxide nanoparticles interact with each other to destroy cancer cells under laboratory conditions. The 100 nanometer wide particles, which are attracted by tumor cells, are particularly prone to magnetically induced heating.
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*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
September 29th, 2009 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, News
Tags: Cash-Strapped Universities, Education, Retired Professors, Science, Teaching, Volunteerism
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As state university systems are making budget cuts and furloughing professors while have to expand course sections to meet burgeoning enrollment, one solution may be to tap the expertise of retired professors in the area.
The Research Triangle area of North Carolina, home to over a dozen colleges and universities, is also home to at least 600 retired professors.
This morning, Eric Ferreri of the Raleigh News & Observer, one of the best higher-ed reporters in the biz, reports on the offers from very accomplished profs who want to give back to their community and the relative lack of response from the big universities:
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September 29th, 2009 by Medgadget in Announcements, Better Health Network, News
Tags: Chemistry, Contest, iPod, Medgadget, Medicine, Nobel Prize, Physics, Physiology
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Next Monday, the Nobel Foundation will announce the winner(s) of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In the following two days, two more Nobels will be revealed: in Physics and in Chemistry. Because of the success of last year’s inaugural Guess-A-Nobel Contest, we decided we’ll repeat this event annually until there is no more science worthy of the prize. This year we’re giving out three 8GB Apple iPod Touch devices to those who correctly guess in each of the three science categories. Because we profile a good deal of apps for the iPhone/Touch platform, we thought this might be a useful tool beside all the fun it can provide on the off time. Furthermore, if someone does manage to guess all three correctly, he or she will be getting the souped-up 64 GB version of the iPod device with all the trimmings.
Here are the rules of the game: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
