| Florida fares poorly in Komen report
Florida is among the "most restrictive" states for women seeking state help during breast cancer treatment, according to a new report from Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The State of Breast Cancer Report released Monday said that Florida is one of 21 states that still determine a woman ineligible for Medicaid-funded treatment, unless she was screened through the state program. That restricts access to care for those diagnosed elsewhere, according to a release from the Florida Suncoast Affiliate of Komen for the Cure, a network of breast cancer survivors and activists. The affiliate plans to lobby the Florida Legislature to change laws affecting women seeking Medicaid-funded treatment for breast cancer, the release said. In 2006, the affiliate said it provided 2,500 initial screening mammograms and 1,100 initial diagnostic procedures including biopsies, and 89 women were diagnosed and treated for breast cancer.
Flamel Now Part of Wacky Lawsuit Hijinks
As Motley Fool analyst Charly Travers once said, "drug fails, get sued." This is the prospect facing Hidden Gems pick Flamel Technologies (Nasdaq: FLML) this week, after multiple class action shareholder lawsuits targeting the company were announced. The sin that started the class action lawyers flocking to Flamel was a failed study of Flamel's lead drug, Coreg CR. Coreg CR is marketed by partner GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK); after the once-a-day controlled-release heart failure treatment failed to show any improvement in patient compliance versus its twice-a-day immediate-release version, shares of Flamel sank. (More Foolish commentary on this study can be seen here and here.) As any investor following the biopharma sector long enough will notice, any development-stage drugmaker with a lead compound that fails an important clinical study or experiences an unsuccessful regulatory review will find the class action shareholder lawsuits coming its way: Shareholder suit against Dendreon (Nasdaq: DNDN) after an unfavorable FDA review, check.
Mickey Kaus
I didn't know she was fighting cancer. She sent me an email only a couple of months ago cheerfully and sensibly disputing something I'd written arguing that Gov. Vilsack's candidacy would let Hillary skip the Iowa caucuses. (She wrote: "If Vilsack is running at the bottom of the Iowa Poll, as he was, he isn't a replay of Tom Harkin and doesn't give anyone a pass out of Iowa, methinks. ... And besides, Hillary being Hillary won't get a pass anywhere.") Orin was almost certainly right, as usual--where did Hillary spend last weekend, again? ... I only met Orin-Eilbeck a few times--mainly through the hospitality of her friend Mary Louise Oates, in whose house she was surrounded by Democratic friends. I'd heard she had a rep as a driven, badger-her-sources reporter, but everytime I met her she was funny and warm and sharp.
Rigel's R788 Demonstrates Significant Improvement in Rheumatoid ...
The most common clinically meaningful adverse events noted in the clinical trial were dose-related neutropenia, mild elevations of liver function tests, and gastrointestinal (GI) side effects. Dose reduction (to one half the assigned dose, by taking the drug once per day) was pre-specified in the protocol, contingent on neutrophil counts and/or liver function tests. Notably, a vast majority of the patients (19 out of 21) who had their dose reduced, successfully completed the clinical trial with minimal safety issues. Study Design The clinical trial was a multi-center, randomized, double blind, placebo controlled, ascending dose study involving 189 patients in three approximately equal size cohorts receiving 50, 100, or 150 mg po bid. Within each cohort, patients were assigned on a 3:1 basis to R788 or placebo.
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