Harvard Placebo Study Was Seriously Overhyped
Both Forbes senior editor Matt Herper and I blogged about this Harvard study about the power of placebos that came out last week. Its main claim was that even if you told someone you were giving them a...
View ArticleFDA Delay Could Be Very Bad Omen For MannKind
What does today's one month delay in the FDA's decision on Mannkind's insulin inhaler mean? While my colleague David Whelan has written extensively about this product, I have done no detailed thinking...
View ArticleExclusive: Glaxo's Witty On Why He Shuns Megadeals
Pfizer has done three giant deals in the last decade in the quest to deal with empty drug pipelines and looming patent expirations. So far, it looks like the deals accomplished little--they turned a...
View ArticleThe Bull Case For MannKind's Insulin Inhaler
I wrote a blog the other day that MannKind bulls hated. It detailed the bear case against Mannkind from analyst Avik Roy, who thinks the FDA's new four week delay in its decision on whether to approve...
View ArticleThe Best Tech Investment For The Next Two Decades
What's the single best technology investment for the next two decades? Facebook or Groupon? Maybe--if you have money and connections and can get in on these early. Most people can't.
View ArticleWhy You Should Fear Giant Databases With Your DNA
Gene scientists are racing to assemble DNA samples to pinpoint the causes of individual cancer cases and rare genetic diseases. Various private companies including 23andMe offer gene tests that you can...
View ArticleA Reality Check On Forbes' Outrageous Prediction Of A $100 Billion DNA Industry
Forbes' Matt Herper predicts that the $1.5 billion market market for DNA sequencing could surge at a 17% rate for the next 20 years in his story, Gene Machine. It predicts that when it hits the medical...
View ArticleWhen a Life Saving Heart Device Is Misused, Costs Go Through The Roof
The latest headline from a big Journal of the American Medical Association study is getting wide publicity today: over 20% of patients who get implanted defibrillators--devices that deliver a shock to...
View ArticleFraudulent Autism Vaccine Study Shows The Flaws In Medical Journal System
The British Medical Journal's conclusion that the original study that led to the autism vaccine scare was "an elaborate fraud" shows how flawed the current system for reviewing high-profile medical...
View ArticleA Biotech Billionaire And His Radical DNA Drug That Kills Cancer From Within
Billionaire Randal Kirk is taking a stake in Ziopharm Oncology, a maverick company developing less toxic chemotherapy drugs, to push forward a novel DNA therapy that he thinks will be far bigger than...
View ArticleAndrew Witty's Plan To Save Glaxo
Last year was miserable for the British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline. Its shares have gone nowhere (and declined 20% since late 2005), its sales are all but stagnant, and its news feed is a depressing...
View ArticleWhy You Should Never Get Fusion Surgery For Plain Back Pain
A recent Bloomberg article should put the fear of God in anyone who wants to get a fusion operation for low back pain blamed on worn-out spinal discs. I've written about the lack of evidence behind...
View ArticleAmgen Exec: "Clearly Superior" Prostate Cancer Drug Will Be Huge
Amgen chief medical officer Sean Harper is at the big J.P. Morgan conference talking up the company's bone tumor drug Xgeva, which contains high doses of the same medicine found in its osteoporosis...
View ArticleWhy Forbes' Glaxo Story Was Totally Naive
Some readers thought my exclusive story on how GlaxoSmithkline's Andrew Witty is trying to revive the troubled drug maker by making it into a band of biotech companies was naive. I was fascinated by...
View ArticleWill Glaxo's Legal Woes Ever End?
2011 has started with a big thud for the troubled drug maker GlaxoSmithkline. The company is hoping to cure its problems by refashioning itself into a collection of small biotechs despite great...
View ArticleThe Media Should Stop Invading Steve Jobs' Medical Privacy
Steve Jobs has taken yet another medical leave from Apple, resulting in huge headlines splayed across the top of the websites of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. The only person...
View ArticleThe Good News For Steve Jobs
There's endless debate in the blogosphere about whether Apple should disclose more details about Steve Jobs' illness. I think the whole debate is silly because statistics for this type of rare cancer...
View ArticleOne Company That Benefits The Most From The Soaring Diabetes Epidemic
The CDC is out with new numbers on the diabetes epidemic showing that it is continuing to surge out of control. Now 26 million Americans have diabetes and another 70 million--a third of the adult...
View ArticleThe Genius Chemist And His Assault On Mutant Killer Bacteria
The biotech industry creates new drugs by making tweaks to natural proteins. University of Pennsylvania chemist William DeGrado is more of an artist than a tweaker. He has spent much of his career...
View ArticleBill Gates and Diane Sawyer Push Vaccines, Polio Eradication At FDR's Home
Many upper middle income Americans are afraid to give vaccines to their kids because they fear they will cause autism or other neurological side effects, despite clear evidence that they don't. Here at...
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