What a week!

[olstad]

It is so much easier to wake up in the morning when I don't have to go to school. Fascinating huh?

Test week is finally over. I didn't do so well on my biopharmaceutics exam from last week, but I think I rocked my tests from this week and mostly I'm just glad it is over. I was starting to feel like I don't do anything but study.

Comments

[nuclear_eggset]

I don't know if you saw the news bit on bbc news that the NHS in england was denying that particular drug to a woman with a very aggresive, but early stage, breast cancer, specifically because it wasn't approved for use in early stages of breast cancer by the government organizations and was an expensive drug. she's fighting it, but it's an interesting point where government relgulation affects medical treatment.

[olstad]

It's important to note, they were not denying the drug, they were denying paying for it, which in universal healthcare amounts to the same thing.

"It is already possible for a clinician to prescribe a drug for an unlicensed indication. The clinician will make this decision after discussion with the patient about the potential risks and taking into account medical history. However, if the drug is unlicensed, PCTs may also become involved to decide whether to support the clinician's decision and supply the unlicensed drug at NHS expense."

An inusrance company in the US might also deny to pay for the drug, but the patient could still get it. Ain't capitalism wonderful!

It makes sense for Roche to push for early breast cancer treatment, especially in England. I was mostly pointing out that the news companies were trying to make the FDA look bad, like they do so often, but the situation is not really comparable. If you want to point a finger, point it at the insurance companies!

[olstad]

That quote is from the BBC.

[nuclear_eggset]

true... sorry if I left any confusion over that. quite frankly, that's one of the reasons I *don't* want socialized medicine. I thought I read something, a bit ago, about insurance companies wanting to further crack down on off-label use... ridiculous, really, when you think about the myriad of drugs that can be used for so many different things; it would be outrageously expensive to do formal FDA testing on every possible use.

then again, insurance companies like to say that generic formulations are identical to non-generics, so they'll only cover the cheaper... wait for one of their executives to find that the generic gives him uncomfortable side effects that the brand-name doesn't!