ppp 03-10-08

Quote of the day: Many of life's failures are people who did not realize

how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)

Edison once parried those who were clamoring for “results” with the statement that he knew “thousands of things that won’t work.” Imagine if Einstein had stopped after E=mB². What if Lincoln had quit politics after the Lincoln-Douglas debate? (He lost the debate but soon became the Republican presidential nominee) If the Dread Scott decision of the Supreme Court had never been challenged, people would still be treated as property.

Persistence in the quest for something better does not assure success but it sure gives you a fighting chance. You do not lose when you fail if you get up again and keep trying. You lose when you fail to get up again. A few weeks ago I went to my party’s state house district’s convention to support the endorsement of a particular candidate for Minnesota’s state house of representative. Two years ago she was endorsed but lost to the other party’s challenger by just a few votes. This year 3 qualified people placed their names in nomination for the endorsement. After three ballots, my candidate was endorsed. I’ll have to wait until November to see if she will win or not but she took the first step in that direction by entering into the fray again.

In sales, it is said, that “salesmanship begins when the first ‘no’ is encountered”. The discovery of new drugs may occur by serendipity but most are the result of years of grueling, tedious bench work using systematic application of medicinal chemistry and structural relational design. Sounds pretty boring but well worth the effort, for the individual, the sponsor company and, ultimately, suffering patients.

You may not see the effects of your efforts this week but if you stay on course, keep trying, and remain positive you may see results over time. While I am not guaranteeing successful results, if you are true to your ideals, follow them with a passion and do not give up, you will be successful in fact. Hang in there. Keep fighting. Do not give up. Be a success.

ps. Best answer this week to the question "How are you?" was "Super fantasmagorically good"

Wyeth’s new drug, Prestiq (desvenlafaxine), was approved late last week. This is a common approach to extend the life of a franchise drug; about the time that the drug is due to go generic, come out with an extended release form. When that is about to expire you knock off a methyl group (or some other chemical group from the drug structure) and receive extended patent life. The next task is to convince prescribers that the drug you were hawking as “God’s gift to mankind” only a few years ago should be replaced by your new drug (aka “the seconding coming”).

Surprisingly, diet and exercise changes could treat, mitigate or avert many… but that would only be cheaper, safer, and ultimately more rewarding than your present life style.

High tech necklace detects pills as they go down. Techies want to notify physicians when the patients miss doses. Each pill would have to carry a small magnet. (I think that I should patent a biodegradable RFID as a better alternative.) Sounds good in theory by with only about 1 out of 3 pills are taken on time, physicians would be faced with data overload. Refill authorizations are already quite time consuming so this “data” would cause a doctor meltdown within 24 hours.

US threats of trade sanctions has the international-patent-ignoring government of Thailand backpedaling. They have been “licensing” the manufacture of generic copies of drugs still on patent.

New website (founded by 5 physicians) encourages doctors to embrace e-prescribing. See the site at http://www.getrxconnected.com/site.aspx . Physicians can find “connected pharmacies” by zip code so that they know that their “pitching” will be “caught”. CUB, CVS, Kmart, Sam’s, Target, Wal-Mart, Walgreens and the other big players all participate. They even have a guide to selection of technology (You don’t suspect that this would generate some income do you?)

Lower doses of the drug coumadin (warfarin) are required for people who have certain variants of VKORC1 and CYP2C9. If patients do not metabolize the drug as well as the rest of us they may experience a bleeding episode when starting therapy. I’m not sure how quickly the genetic tests could be performed but they would need to be done before the patient starts on warfarin. We have standard tests for monitoring therapy once patients start the drug. (Warfarin was named after the group who sponsored the initial discovery... the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation)

7) Pricey placebo portends positive potency (Cheaper concoction can’t clinically convince)

The more expensive the placebo, the better it “worked”. The $0.10 pill only worked in 65% of patients while the $2.50 pill was effective in 85% for pain reduction. With that in mind, I am hereby increasing the price of the Prattle by 10 times! (Still free but 10 times more valuable).

Disclaimer: "Pepin's Pharmaceutical Prattle" (AKA "The Prattle") is the property of PHARMWORKS, LLC and Steven M. Pepin, Pharm. D. The opinions expressed are those of the bald-headed author. To start or stop any drug without the advice and supervision of your physician would be stupid. So don't do anything based upon what you read here without professional advice. To be added to or removed from the distribution list please e-mail your request to spepin@pharmworks.com . All insightful comments from readers are thoughtfully considered (the rest are callously discarded). Copyright 1998-2008 PHARMWORKS, LLC all rights reserved.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------