Big Pharma

The ‘nocebo’ effect: how informed consent can cause unnecessary harm in clinical trials University of Oxford Research published today in the Journal of Medical Ethics found that the way informed consent is currently taken causes unnecessary ‘nocebo’ harms. The requirement of informed consent means that it is an ethical requirement to warn patients about risks of taking part in clinical trials. But recent research shows that the way in which patients are told about these risks can actually cause harm. Dr Jeremy Howick, Director of the Oxford Empathy Programme, Faculty of Philosophy, and study author, says: ‘Sometimes when we warn patients about negative side effects...

Ethnobotanical medicine is effective against the bacterium causing Lyme disease   A preclinical study in test tubes showed that selected plant-based herbal medicines, especially Ghanaian quinine and Japanese knotweed, work better than antibiotics. Lyme disease, also called borreliosis, is the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern hemisphere. It is caused by the spirochete (corkscrew-shaped) bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and close relatives and mainly spread through the bite of infected ticks. Currently, more than 300,000 new cases are reported in the USA each year, compared to 65,000 in Europe, and these numbers are rising due to climate change and urban sprawl. The standard...

Pharma Labeling Standards Will Help Supply Chains, Patient Safety Analyst insight: The pharmaceutical industry is making significant progress in standardizing labels and serialization across supply chains.   A group of U.S. pharmaceutical and healthcare providers have shared a snapshot of the industry’s progress in product label standardization — a requirement of the FDA’s 2013 Drug Supply Chain Security Act.  By examining product barcodes in wholesalers’ facilities, the companies checked for four DSCSA-required data elements that support an electronic, interoperable system for identifying and tracing pharmaceuticals. The standardized data will be used to associate the physical product markings with the serialized electronic...

Encompass Health, Healing Hands, LifeCare See Opportunity in Home Health Compare Overhaul The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced last month that Home Health Compare — its consumer-facing database of home health provider quality information — will soon be incorporated with seven other Compare sites to create a larger tool named “Medicare Care Compare.” The goal is to consolidate and make the Compare tool more user-friendly. That’s a goal that hasn’t always been hit in the past, as most Medicare beneficiaries and their families have reported trouble using the online resource from CMS. “To meet the needs...

10 reasons why health care startups fail In our roles at MedTech Innovator, a global accelerator for medtech startups, we’ve worked with thousands of early-stage health care companies in cities around the world. We’re proud to play a role in helping new companies get their innovative technologies to the patients who need them. But we’ve seen a lot of failed efforts, too. Grounded in science and regulated by the government, health care is a challenging sector. In the life of any startup, there are plenty of opportunities for missteps. And pivoting isn’t as easy as it is for companies developing...