General
“EVEN THE SCORE” STEPS OVER THE LINE
I (L.T.) wrote here in April about the behind-the-scenes tactics of Sprout Pharmaceuticals in pre-approval maneuvering on behalf of its drug for women’s low sexual desire, flibanserin. Well, wouldn’t you k now that just as the […]
“RIGHT TO TRY” LAWS – BOON FOR DESPERATE PATIENTS OR CRUEL TRICK?
Colorado has recently signed the first “Right to Try” law allowing patients with terminal diagnoses who are out of medical options to apply directly to companies to try drugs that are in development but which have […]
ANTIDEPRESSANT BLACKBOX WARNINGS UNDER ATTACK AGAIN
Its hard to believe that it has been almost ten years since black box warnings were added to antidepressants. These warnings came 13 years after the FDA first held hearings on link between Prozac and suicide […]
IS GLOBAL HEALTH TOO MEDICALIZED?
Although I (L.T.) have thought and written for years about medicalization (especially the medicalization of sex), the application of this concept to issues of global health is new to me. Jocalyn Clark, a PhD public […]
A LOOPHOLE FOR INDUSTRY TO PROMOTE OFF-LABEL?
Earlier this year, the FDA revisited its policies on distributing reprints of medical and scientific journal publications in its revised draft guidance entitled, “Distributing Scientific and Medical Publications on Unapproved New Uses–Recommended Practices” . If it […]
INCHING TOWARDS “THE PATIENT REVOLUTION”
Escalating calls for a “patient revolution” are pouring in from the blogs and books of doctors, researchers, patients, activists, and all sorts of policy people. The movement is not all new, however. In “Towards the […]
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH FLIBANSERIN
I (LT) have learned about the machinations of SELLING SICKNESS largely through decades of work as a sexologist examining and trying to limit the medicalization of sexuality. Flibanserin is a serotonergic antidepressant proposed to help […]
