Pharma’s Cutting Edge

As regular readers will remember, I am a user of ezetimibe (Zetia, Schering-Plough & Merck) for LDL-C reduction beyond that provided from the statin I also take.  Before and after ENHANCE preliminary results were released and again after they were published, I wrote editorials outlining my opinion that appropriately selected users of ezitimibe should in most cases [...]

January 9th, 2009 | Category: Clinical Research, FDA | Leave a comment

 
ASBMR was eventful this year, with PMP osteoporosis trial news from several companies, most notably fracture data from Amgen’s denosumab and comparative BMD data from Merck’s odanacatib.
Of course, it’s easy enough for you to learn about these presentations from other news sources, so I won’t spend much time on them.  Here’s the gist:  Denosumab, the [...]

September 18th, 2008 | Tags: bisphosphanate, cathepsin K, osteoporosis, RANKL, SERM | Category: Clinical Research, FDA, Public Perceptions, Technology | Comments (1)

BBC on NICE Final Appraisal Determination for TNF-alpha inhibitors in RA
My marketing colleagues’ have generally argued that there are limited funds for studies, and such funds ought not be spent studying the competition, unless the plan is to go head to head and whoop some ass.  My argument in return has been that clinical trials [...]

July 21st, 2008 | Category: Clinical Research, Health Econ, Sales and Marketing | Leave a comment

Results from ENHANCE are now available.  I don’t think anyone is terribly surprised, given the delay in reporting the results, that addition of ezitimibe to simvasatin (i.e. Vytorin) did not have a sigificant impact on carotid intimal media thickness compared with simvastatin (Zocor) alone in subjects with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (a disorder of LDL receptors that affects [...]

January 15th, 2008 | Category: Clinical Research, For Investors | Comments (1)