Category: Meds

The people vs. opioid pharma: Pharma wins again

On Monday, November 1, an Orange County California Superior Court Judge said, in a tentative decision, that the opioid pharmaceutical companies were not responsible for the opioid crisis. This particular case, going by the name of “The People of the St…

The rise of targeted therapies: the era of the patient-focused approach  

There is an urgent need for innovation in cancer treatments. Although we’ve seen significant progress in indications for drugs treating particular diseases, cancer research data shows that 10-year survival statistics for cancers such as esophageal and …

Ivermectin is a Nobel Prize-winning wonder drug

Ivermectin is an over 30-year-old wonder drug that treats life- and sight-threatening parasitic infections. Its lasting influence on global health has been so profound that two of the key researchers in its discovery and development won the Nobel Prize…

Questions about pharma pricing and marketing

In 2017, Allergan CEO Brent Saunders promised to reign in drug price hikes, and other Pharma companies followed suit. In 2021, it looks like all bets are off. In August, Amgen raised the price of its psoriasis med Otezla by 2.4 percent after raising th…

The abundant and colorful world of pharmaceuticals

Creative photography Year after year, new medications find their way into the market, adding to the abundant and colorful world of pharmaceuticals. Medications play a dual role in our lives, as they represent wellness and illness concomitantly. I am pr…

The ritual of taking medications: the pill wheel

Woodworking / Illustration The problem with the act of taking medications is that it’s so mundane that we don’t see any problem with it. This machine-cut, flat, unemotional, same-size-fits-all object that we defencelessly welcome in our very private bo…

Colorful pills don’t paint my world

Pyrography Medicine bottles are mundane objects tightly woven into our daily lives, with the promise of happier moods, better sleep, and lower blood pressure. Nevertheless, nothing on these objects correlates with hope, faith, or a feeling of healthine…

Federal legalization of cannabis: What does it mean for patients?

I just opened my email inbox to see the following headline: “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will finally release a draft of their long-awaited federal cannabis…

Aduhelm and how money and politics supersede science

Alzheimer’s disease is not the only cause of dementia, but it is the most common.  The many other types of dementia, e.g., Lewy body, vascular or frontotemporal, mostly affect older adults. Collectively, dementias are terrible diseases striking at the …

The FDA was wrong about Aduhelm

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) negated the recommendation of its expert panel and approved Aduhelm to treat Alzheimer’s dementia (AD), contending that the possible benefit trumped the lack of evidence of efficacy. The FDA was inexcusably in err…