Healthcare Matters

Have a lovely Labor Day weekend, everyone! For a little fun, I am including this link to “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.” You’ll thank me later.

Uh, oh.

Backlash Over New Gilead AIDS Drug Begins

And so, the battle begins. As soon as Gilead Sciences announced that the price for its newly approved Stribild HIV medication – a once-daily combination pill – would be $28,500 annually, some AIDS activists threatened to take action to find a way to lower the cost. Now, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is angling to place a referendum in front of San Francisco voters to require city officials to hold talks with drugmakers about pricing for ‘essential medicines.’

Better late than never, I suppose.

Apology from German thalidomide company after decades of silence

The German company that manufactured thalidomide, the morning sickness drug that led to thousands of babies being born with deformed limbs and other defects, apologized to victims Friday after decades of silence.

At the Friday unveiling of a public memorial paid for by the company in the town of Stolberg, Grunenthal CEO Harald F. Stock said it regretted the grave problems the drug had caused before it was pulled from most markets in 1961.

New drug gets stamp of approval from F.D.A.

F.D.A. Approves Prostate Cancer Drug

The Food and Drug Administration approved a new life-prolonging drug for men with late-stage prostate cancer on Friday, adding to an increasingly crowded field.

The new drug, which will be called Xtandi, was developed by Medivation, a small San Francisco pharmaceutical company, in partnership with the Japanese firm Astellas Pharma.

From Spend Matters

Friday Rant: Nurturing Academic and Life Success With Games, Not Just Dollars

As the un-official end of summer approaches and another academic year ramps up, it’s quite possible that all of us who wish to give the young people in our lives the very best leg up on future academic and career success should re-examine our tendency to invest in canned solitary developmental exercises like early reading and virtual or physical rote exercises like flash cards and language tapes.

From Spend Matters UK/Europe

Update on possible changes to Public Procurement Regulations

The Cabinet Office has published a Procurement Policy Note giving an update on the negotiations taking place to update public procurement regulations. Titled  “Progress Update on the Modernisation of the EU Procurement Rules”, it does what it says on the tin…

It’s well worth reading for anyone in public procurement – or, I would suggest, any suppliers who supply the sector to any significant level.