| WellPoint Math Error Ricochets The Obama administration's top health official is urging state regulators and lawmakers to investigate whether WellPoint made mathematical errors in justifying sharp rate increases around the country. online.wsj.com |
The Prostate Cancer Quandary Scientists may soon be able to answer the agonizing question facing men with prostate cancer: Does their cancer need immediate treatment or can it be left alone? online.wsj.com |
GlaxoSmithKline, Anthera Pharmaceuticals: Novel Treatments for Cardiovascular Disease Jason Chew submits: The cardiovascular disease (CVD) market is worth approximately $100 billion today and makes up 12% of all global pharmaceutical sales. Unit sales of medicines for CVD are growing, but patent expirations for drugs such as Lipitor will hold revenues down. The advent of statins in the treatment of CVD was an incredible advance in the field, however, recent attempts to develop new products have been less successful.In recent years, the novel target, PLA2 has become the subject of substantial research. PLA2s, or Phospholipases A2, are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of fatty acid chains from phospholipids. PLA2s play important an important role in lipid metabolism and inflammatory response. There are 15 known members of the PLA2 family, ordered into four subgroups: secretory sPLA2, cytosolic cPLA2, calcium independent iPLA2, and lipoprotein associated Lp-PLA2. Much attention has been focused on sPLA2 and Lp-PLA2 due to their involvement in the production of biologically active metabolites implicated in the pathology of atherosclerosis. In the last few years, cPLA2 has also come under increased scrutiny.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Arena’s Lorqess: A Market Size Analysis Rockford Coscia submits: The week has finally arrived. This Thursday an FDA advisory panel will take on one of the most controversial drugs of recent memory. Arena’s (ARNA) Lorqess, also known as lorcaserin, will be evaluated ultimately on whether its benefits outweigh its side effects. I’ve written other articles about Lorqess’ valvulopathy “issue” and its odds of passing based on the Qnexa panel, but today I wanted to tackle the share price issue on approval by the FDA. My hopes are that this analysis will help readers to have a better understanding of where share prices should rest upon favorable panel review and ultimately if and when approval is gained. Let me start by saying that the potential sales estimation, and therefore underlying share price, is one of the most difficult estimations I’ve seen for biotechs. This seems largely due to the fact that, while obesity is a tremendously large potential market, it is grossly under treated. A statistician might say that the error bars associated with this sort of valuation are astronomically huge. Use the information presented here and elsewhere and come up with a figure you believe in and invest accordingly. Other attempts at this analysis have been presented here, here, and here.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
MEDTOX Scientific Announces Third Quarter Conference Call [GlobeNewswire] - ST. PAUL, Minn. -- MEDTOX Scientific, Inc. , announced today that it will hold a teleconference to discuss third quarter results on Wednesday, October 13, at 9:30 a.m. Central Time . us.rd.yahoo.com |