Placebo Control

JANUARY 12, 2014

This new 10-minute TEDMED talk is getting quite a bit of attention: (if embedded video does not work, try the TED site itself.) In it, Roger Stein claims to have created an approach to advancing drugs through clinical trials that will "fundamentally change the way research for cancer and lots of other things gets done". Because the costs of bringing a drug to market are so high, time from discovery to marketing is so long, and the chances of success of any individual drug are so grim, betting on

Development 40

Development Drugs Pharma Companies Engineer 40

Placebo Control

JANUARY 6, 2014

Adam Feuerstein appears to be a generally astute observer of the biotech scene. As a finance writer, he's accosted daily with egregiously hyped claims from small drug companies and their investors, and I think he tends to do an excellent job of spotting cases where breathless excitement is unaccompanied by substantive information. However, Feuerstein's healthy skepticism seems to have abandoned him last year in the case of a biotech called Sarepta Therapeutics , who released some highly promisin

Drugs 40

Drugs Clinical Trials Clinical Trials Containment 40

Placebo Control

JANUARY 2, 2014

Big online studies, in search of millions of participants. Back in September, I enrolled in the Heath eHeart Study - an entirely online research study tracking cardiac health. (Think Framingham Heart , cast wider and shallower - less intensive follow-up, but spread out to the entire country.) [In the spirit of full disclosure, I should note that I haven’t completed any follow-up activities on the Heath eHeart website yet.

Trials 40

Trials Clinical Trials Clinical Trials Research 40