Heroin is like a box of chocolates. And it wasn't invented in Germany. And it's (technically) harmless. To make sense of all this gibberish you better read the article. A bunch of stuff you might not know about H.
Drugs & Pharmaceuticals
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of HHS, just announced an award as much as $285 million to Paratek, a publicly-owned Boston-based biopharmaceutical company that focuses on infectious disease research, to develop a new antibiotic for anthrax. But, will pull incentives – rewarding companies for the successful development of new antibiotics – be enough to keep large, private companies in the field of antibiotic research? ACSH advisor Dr. David Shlaes explains.
Last year, we wrote about four prescription drugs people hate. It isn't as easy to find drugs that people love, but we came up with four, each remarkable in its own way. You may be surprised by what made this curious list.
Esai Pharmaceutical just got FDA approval for a new sleeping pill called Dayvigo. Is it any good? Plus - a rant about the "addiction specialist" fools who might want to overregulate it. It's worth reading this horrendous article just for the rant.
Summary: In the mad dash to remove opioids from modern life, some researchers are willing to try anything, even Tylenol to control pain. How well does IV Tylenol work for post-operative pain from spinal surgery? Although the data are not complete, it's safe to say that it's no better than moose urine.
Dr. Singh, ACSH friend and former Chief Medical Officer for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for HHS, published a paper on the adulterants found in street drugs. What was in there? A lot of junk.
When it comes to antibiotic research, what does the word "innovation" mean? It's a bit different for antibiotics. Dr. David Shlaes argues that a difference in clinical utility is a better measure, even when a new drug or combination of drugs may be structurally similar to older drugs. This, from his blog "Antibiotics, the Perfect Storm."
The cost of pharmaceuticals is high for a number of reasons. A new study considers our out-of-pocket spending and increased use of medications, rather than more expensive surgery or hospitalization as a driver we can control.
It's quite easy to make any drug look bad. Even those with limited intellects, such as the leaders of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, have done a splendid job in making prescription analgesics look like the personification of death. Let's apply PROP's standards (such as they are) to some other drugs and see what that looks like.
Here is yet more evidence that fentanyl, rather than prescription drugs, is fueling the opioid crisis. It's time to add illegal drug cartels to the list of defendants.
This week marks the 37th anniversary of the approval of human insulin – the first biotech drug ever. Almost as revolutionary as the drug was its five-month approval by the FDA, which was two years less than average. Dr. Henry Miller celebrates the dawn of biotechnology. He should know. At that time he was in charge of the FDA team that reviewed it.