This is copied from Daily
Dose with William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
FDA sides with the little guy... for a
change
It's like the school bully complaining that the kids from the
chess club are picking on him.
The bully in this case, of course, is a
drug company. Specifically KV Pharmaceuticals, and they're griping that a bunch
of compounding pharmacists -- sorry guys, but you're the chess club -- have
"stolen" the company's drug.
And just like in the cliché Hollywood
movies, this bully got his comeuppance -- in court, not on the playground, but
the result is the same: The bully is done for.
KV, as you may recall,
slapped a patent on an inexpensive hormone treatment given to women at risk
of a preterm birth -- a treatment that compounding pharmacists had been
making for years for about $10 a shot.
That adds up to $200 after the 20
treatments needed during a high-risk pregnancy.
KV's version initially
cost $1,500 a pop -- or $30,000 per pregnancy -- so you can see why there was a
huge outcry when the pricing was announced. The company quickly cut that price
in half, but who's going to pay even that much when the chess club is still
selling it for $10 a pop?
So KV did what drug companies do best. No, not
make a better drug... they sent their lawyers after the pharmacists, issuing
everything short of death threats.
Business as usual, so far -- but
here's where the story take an unusual turn: The FDA told KV to back the heck
off and said it would allow the pharmacists to keep making their cheap version
of the drug.
Shocked? Me too. Then, KV took the FDA to court, asking a
judge to force the agency to stop the pharmacists.
And now, the judge
has spoken -- KV lost, and the company's goose is so cooked that it could go
under. They already filed for bankruptcy in August, and winning this lawsuit was
pretty much the company's last hope.
Lesson for today: Don't mess with
the chess club.
This blog will be difficult to classify because this is where I will post thoughts and ideas that do not clearly belong on another site or blog.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
great to see moms in my area are working from home http://ping.fm/P5iPG?Article=57222&s=pf looks like im joining the party
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