Don’t make me laugh! Allos’ pivotal trial was really small (109 evaluable patients), and they got Orphan status which means we (the US taxpayer) pay for half their costs anyway. Allos have PTCL patients over a barrel now, as they boast, but this won’t last. Already Istodax from Gloucester is in the wings. Interesting that Celgene just bought Istodax in preference to Folotyn!!! Anyway, belinostat comes on line in PTCL within 18 months, so Allos need to have a sky-high price in order to make their money before Folotyn becomes redundant.

I have never been called a liberal before, since I have been a Fiscal Conservative Republican since the Reagan years.

Thirty thousand dollars for a drug that does not prolong life is insane. And sorry Charlie, the majority of cancer patients become medicare/ medicaid recipients, and we, the American Taxpayer will foot the bill.

And distribution of your tax payer dollars..
Ill trade my tax return with yours, then you will really have something to complain about. I dont want a greedy Pharma to decide how my tax dollars are spent, especially for a drug that doesnt prolong life, which im sure also carries a significant list of side effects.

Hey Mr. (or Ms.) Free Market Capitalist, you seem to know a lot about these things. Do you know the name of the company to which I am referring? You likely do, but in case not, here’s a little something to get you started

ENR_N

I gave you the first vowel for free. Well, nothing livens up a blog like a flame war. You know you’re old when you remember the pre-internet days of dial-up to a local BBS (1st prize to whoever can tell me what BBS stands for-No Googling).

Over the years, I have come to realize that the best way to deal with a troll or assclown is to ignore them. A very disciplined person capable of showing restraint would heed that advice.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending upon you’re persuasion), I have never exercised restraint very well. Thanks to the discussion here about “free markets,” I have a whole series of posts coming soon. It’s on!

http://blog.pharmaconduct.org?src=PharmalotComment20091207-Fotolyn2

I’m not destroying Bayh-Dole, I’m talking about the march-in provision of that very act. The government retains march in rights in every single drug developed using federal grants funds, including this one. Those rights were specifically created by the Bayh-Dole Act to make sure that the innovation paid for by taxpayers is actually benefiting the public. It’s a nice power that we retain in order to force pharma companies to control greed, which I think everyone would agree we all possess in some measure.

These rights under Bayh-Dole were created for a good reason. They help encourage compromise in cases like this one so that, as I pointed out, everyone can be well-served by the science we all paid for.

“. . .During the third quarter of 2009, the FDA approved 10 new pharmaceuticals and vaccines while the EMEA cleared six new therapies, compared to eight FDA approvals in the second quarter. After the increase of marketing authorization over the past two quarters, drug developers may receive around a dozen more regulatory approvals through the end of the first quarter of 2010. . . .”

Namaste

“Torn from today’s headlines“, as they say — quite literally.

Namaste