Type 1 diabetes — the autoimmune disease that begins in childhood and used to be called juvenile-onset diabetes — is rising, around the globe, at 3 percent to 5 percent per year. And at this point, no one can quite say why.
Use of antidepressant drugs has soared nearly 400% since 1988, making the medication the most frequently used by people ages 18-44, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
Eleven percent of Americans ages 12 years and older took antidepressants during the 2005-08 study period, the authors write. They add that though the majority of antidepressants were taken to treat depression, the drugs also can be used for anxiety disorders and other conditions.
Though the loss of patent protection on a brand-name prescription drug tends to lead to a sharp drop in sales for that product in the United States, such older medicines have become a booming business for the pharmaceutical industry in emerging markets.
The Food and Drug Administration is giving pharmaceutical companies some rules for how they interact with consumers on social media. But the companies say they need a lot more clarification from the FDA before they’re comfortable getting back online again. Pharmaceutical companies want to know if they are liable for information posted by third parties on social media sites owned and operated by the pharmaceutical companies. What to do with information that could be considered reporting an adverse drug event is especially troublesome to the companies.
Fewer than 10 percent of the 100,000 men each year who get a diagnosis of early-stage prostate cancer and have the option of leaving the cancerin place while watching it actually do so. The rest want to just get rid of it, with surgery or radiation. But those treatments can have serious side effects like impotence and incontinence. Now a new study suggests there may be a way to slow or stop the cancer’s progress in those who choose not to be treated immediately.
Insurance companies should not be able to turn down experimental surgeries and treatments. Researchers at Harvard’s School of Public Health recently asked residents of the United States, Britain, Italy and Germany whether they would give up high-cost experimental treatments to decrease overall healthcare costs.
The results, released in late December, showed that 62 percent of Americans “oppose decisions by the government or health insurance plans” to deny care if those entities determine that the benefits of that care do not justify its costs.
Heart disease is the biggest killer in the country. But an argument is raging about a popular way of preventing it.Most of the medical community thinks that a good approach is to prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs, or statins, to patients who have high levels of so-called bad cholesterol as well as other risk factors—but who are otherwise healthy.
Pharmaceuticals have improved and extended the lives of millions of people. But the many advances over the past couple of decades haven’t come without controversy, much of it centering on the massive profits the industry makes on blockbuster drugs.
The drug makers say those profits fund the research that produces breakthrough treatments. They warn that with patents expiring on several big-money drugs, their ability to develop new drugs will be severely hampered. Longer-lasting patents, they say, would protect the profits that they need to keep innovative products moving through the pipeline.
The FDA and Social Media (Opt Ed)
The drug industry wants guidance on using social media to market prescription drugs but the FDA is avoiding the issue because they both don’t understand how patients are using social media and how important social media is in making healthcare choices.
Given the latest findings from Manhattan Research that more and more people are going online for health information and that social media is playing a bigger role drug companies cannot stay on the sidelines and wait for the FDA any longer. However they need to redefine “marketing” from pushing information to “marketing with people” and that’s where the biggest gap lies.
DTC marketers are not prepared for social media marketing. You need a community manager, who can over see the site, who understands both about the product and the disease state as well as DDMAC guidelines around Rx drug marketing. Who is this person ? Is it a marketer ? Is it someone from medical or regulatory ?
While this debate rages on consumers and patients are moving on. Manhattan Research reported this week that close to half of consumers who go online for specific health information do go to drug websites but what DTC marketers don’t really understand is that it’s only one stop in the journey to collect health information. Right now there doesn’t seem to be any one website that convinces people to select a specific treatment. Rather it’s a journey that involves time and that is where social media and drug companies can help.
The opportunity to help patients cut through all the clutter and bad health information online is great and social media is a great platform to accomplish this. However what the FDA has to understand is that it’s not without risks. Drug companies should not be held responsible for 3rd party posts that are off label if they are deleted from the site within 24 -36 hours. It’s happening all over the Internet anyway so allow drug companies to reach out to consumers to become part of the conversation rather than being ignored.
Passionate healthcare marketer with over 10 years of experience I believe that what's best for patients is best for healthcare marketers. I also write a monthly DTC Column for PM 360 Magazine and have written many articles on healthcare marketing in an age of empowered patients.
