It's hard to know these days which way the proverbial worm is turning when it comes to shifts in drug policy. Election years tend to do that. Despite an historical turn of events in Central America which saw Presidents of drug trafficking nations come together to call for world wide decriminalization of drugs, in an effort to end the violence and corruption of the drug trade, the US continues to demur, absurdly claiming that the "War on Drugs" has been a success. Even stranger is Canada's recent announcement that they plan to follow the US model of a "tough on crime" approach to drug policy, which threatens to swell their correctional system in the same ways as in the US. Still, good news abounds with recent studies showing that LSD can cure alcoholism, psychedelics can cure PTSD, and cannabis smoking is not nearly as harmful as the prohibition governments claim. ~ CS
Google+ Presents:
It's Time To End The War On Drugs
To liberalise or prohibit, that is the question. And to answer it the masters of live debate have joined forces with the masters of web technology to create a never-seen-before combination of Oxford debating and Silicon Valley prowess.
Prohibitionists argue that legalising anything increases its consumption. The world has enough of a problem with legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco, so why add to the problem by legalising cannabis, cocaine and heroin?
The liberalisers say prohibition doesn’t work. By declaring certain drugs illegal we haven’t reduced consumption or solved any problem. Instead we’ve created an epidemic of crime, illness, failed states and money laundering.
Julian Assange and Richard Branson; Russell Brand and Misha Glenny; Geoffrey Robertson and Eliot Spitzer. Experts, orators and celebrities who’ve made this their cause – come and see them lock horns in a new Intelligence?/Google+ debate format. Some of our speakers will be on stage in London, others beamed in from Mexico City or Sao Paulo or New Orleans, all thanks to the “Hangout” tool on Google+.
The web will have its say, and so can you at the event in London. Be part of the buzz of the audience, be part of an event beamed across the web to millions. Come and witness the future of the global mind-clash at the first of our Versus debates, live at Kings Place
Source:
Intelligence 2 from Google +
North America
America's plague of incarceration
The message is (or should be deeply disturbing. Shouldn't the USA be ashamed at having the world's largest prison system and highest incarceration rate (754 per 100 000 people ? The richest country in the world has so many of its citizens in prison that it can't afford to house them with even basic minimum medical care (more than half of all prisoners have mental health or drug problems . Prison overcrowding itself has become so terrible in California, that in May, 2011, the US Supreme Court affirmed a lower court order that California release some 46 000 prisoners because of the inhuman conditions under which they were being held. In the Court's words, “A prison that deprives prisoners of basic sustenance, including adequate medical care, is incompatible with the concept of human dignity and has no place in a civilised society.”
Source:
"
A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America,"
The Lancet.
International Women's Day: U.S. Must Address Impact of Mass Incarceration on Women.
More women are ending up behind bars than ever. Between 1980 and 1989, the number of women in U.S. prisons tripled. And the number of women in prison has continued to rise since. In the last 10 years, the number of women under jurisdiction of state or federal authorities
increased 21 percent to almost 113,000. During the same time period, the increase in the number of men in prison was 6 percentage points lower, at about 15 percent. The increase in women in the federal population was even larger- over 41 percent from 2000 to 2010.
Most women are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. Over one-fourth are in prison for a drug offense, while 29.6 percent were convicted of a property crime. Addiction plays a large part in a number of women's property crimes, and a lack of available or appropriate treatment only serves to drive their contact with the justice system.
Source:
Justice Policy Institute
From Cell to Screen: The Story of Mumia Abu-Jamal -- Part I
Stephen Vittoria is that rare commodity in Hollywood today: a filmmaker with a conscience. To be more precise, a filmmaker with a strong political conscience. After making two feature films,>Black and White& Hollywood Boulevard (1996 , as well as three feature documentaries:Save Your Life -- The Life and Holistic Times of Dr. Richard Schulze (1998 ,;Keeper of the Flame (2005 and the award-winning art house hit One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern (2005 , a portrait of the South Dakota senator who tried to unseat Richard Nixon from the White House in 1972.
For his latest exploration into America's socio-political landscape, Vittoria joins forces with radio producer Noelle Hanrahan to bring Long Distance Revolutionary, the story of Mumia Abu-Jamal, to the screen. Born Wesley Cook in Philadelphia, Abu-Jamal made his name as a tireless writer and journalist during the racially-charged 1970s that often portrayed the City of Brotherly Love as anything but. With his intense coverage of the MOVE organization, a black empowerment group whose ongoing battle with the police and city hall came to a fiery end in 1985, Abu-Jamal become a constant thorn in the side of the city's powerful establishment. Things came to a sudden head for Abu-Jamal himself on the evening of December 9, 1981 when he was accused of murdering a Philadelphia police officer. He received a death sentence the following year, and has been on Pennsylvania's death row until early this year, when his death sentence was commuted to a life sentence in December, 2011.
Abu-Jamal's case remains one of the most controversial and heatedly debated in American legal history, with participants on both sides either protesting his innocence in the murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner or his absolute guilt with equal passion and more often, great vehemence.
Source:
Huffington Post
What’s In a Name? A Lot, When the Name is “Felon”
At a
recent conference of journalists at John Jay College, I raised an issue I have about language in the media: the frequent use of the word “felon” to describe a person who has been convicted of a crime.
“Felon” is an ugly label that confirms the debased status that accompanies conviction. It identifies a person as belonging to a class outside many protections of the law, someone who can be freely discriminated against, someone who exists at the margins of society.
In short, a “felon” is a legal outlaw and social outcast.
Source:
The Crime Report
Addiction: Medical Disease or Moral Defect?
Scientific theories that addiction hijacks the brain have just increased the stigma that they were meant to stop. At least in the moralistic bad old days, addicts were still viewed as having free will. Here's an alternative to both of these no-win approaches.
Source:
The Fix
Scientists Explore Hallucinogen Treatments for PTSD, Sex Abuse Victims
Mind-altering compounds, such as LSD and psilocybin, stirred controversy in the 1960s. As the counter-culture’s psychedelic drugs of choice, the widespread use - and abuse - of hallucinogens prompted tougher anti-drug laws.
HEALTH SERVICES/OUTCOMES RESEARCH
POSITIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: The Department of Pharmaceutical Systems and Policy at the West Virginia University (WVU School of Pharmacy seeks applications for an Assistant Professor to join our health services/outcomes research team. This 12-month tenure track position is available immediately. Primary responsibilities include graduate and professional program teaching, graduate student mentoring, and developing an independently funded research program in health services and outcomes research. Salary and start-up packages are competitive.
QUALIFICATIONS: Ph.D. or equivalent degree with a strong research focus in patient-reported outcomes (e.g., Health Related Quality of Life, patient satisfaction , or chronic disease epidemiology. Candidates should have a promise for excellence in research and teaching in relevant areas, as well as peer-reviewed publications. Experience and participation in funded research is an advantage and excellent communication skills are important. Candidates should interact effectively with collaborators from diverse disciplines and be eligible for appointment to the graduate faculty in order to teach and mentor graduate students engaged in health services and outcomes research.
APPLICATION: Interested persons should submit an application consisting of a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, and contact information for three professional references to: Usha Sambamoorthi, Ph.D., West Virginia University School of Pharmacy, PO Box 9510, Morgantown, WV 26506 or by e-mail to usambamoorthi@hsc.wvu.edu with a copy to acframe@hsc.wvu.edu. Applications will be considered as they are received and will be accepted until position is filled.
SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY: The School of Pharmacy has a nationally recognized Ph.D. graduate program in health outcomes research with 15 Ph.D. students, the majority of whom are supported by external research funding. It offers exciting opportunities through the Rational Drug Therapy Program which is supported by West Virginia state agencies, the AHRQ funded West Virginia Collaborative Health Outcomes Research of Therapies and Services (CoHORTS center, and the newly established Wigner Institute for Advanced Pharmacy Practice Education and Research. Established partnerships with the state Medicaid program and the state health insurance program, managed care organizations, several pharmaceutical companies, and the nearby National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (N.I.O.S.H. and Mylan Pharmaceuticals offer potential opportunities for collaborative research. In addition, a newly launched School of Public Health and research faculty and graduate programs in business, communication, education, psychology, public administration, and sociology provide opportunities for multidisciplinary collaboration and research.
The School of Pharmacy is situated within a large state-assisted academic health sciences center which includes a 460-bed teaching hospital, a psychiatric hospital, rehabilitation hospital, and regional cancer center. West Virginia University (a Doctoral Research-Intensive University is the state's land-grant university with an enrollment of 29,000 students. WVU is located in Morgantown, a scenic rural area that has been featured in numerous publications for its high quality of life, cultural amenities, outdoor recreation, and is within easy driving distance to Pittsburgh, PA, and Washington, DC.
West Virginia University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. The WVU Health Sciences Center is a smoke free campus. West Virginia University is the recipient of an NSF ADVANCE award for gender equity.
Apply Here
The government in India has granted the rights to an indigenous pharmaceutical group to manufacture a generic version of the cancer treatment drug Nexavar.
For the first time, an Indian drugs firm has been approved to produce a medication under licence when the original's still patent-covered.
As a result of the agreement, the firm - Natco Pharma - is obliged to forward six per cent in royalties back to Bayer, which presently markets Nexavar alongside Onyx Pharmaceuticals.
Bayer, meanwhile - according to reports - isn't best pleased with the Indian government's move. "We are disappointed about this decision", company representative Sabrina Cusimano stated in comments made to the Associated Press. "We will see if we can further defend our intellectual property rights in India".
Nexavar Cancer Drug
Nexavar is the market name for sorafenib, an orally-taken medication now approved to treat two types of cancer - advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer and advanced renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer .
The kidney cancer approval came first, in 2005, when the US FDA declared its satisfaction with the product. It did the same for the drug as a liver cancer treatment two years later and, with clinical trials now in progress, thyroid cancer could be the next condition added to this approved treatment list.
Controversially, the drug's not available as a UK liver cancer treatment, after being rejected - on grounds of cost - by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in November 2009.
Natco Generic Nexavar Approval
The Natco generic Nexavar approval decision will see the production of drug copies priced at the equivalent of £112 for a box of 120: less than £1.00 each. This is dramatically cheaper than the original drug, with the same quantity presently priced at over 30 times that cost.
The Indian pharmaceutical firm believes that the drug's availability is key to the treatment of close to 9,000 cancer patients in India.
"This is a victory for Indian patients and for India's generic manufacturers, which are under attack", Natco Pharma's General Manager, Madineedi Adinarayana, stated according to the BBC, adding: "many more such cases will follow."
One Pennsylvania doctor in 2008 wrote 1,913 prescriptions for the antipsychotic drug Risperdal - a bit more than 5.2 per day in that leap year, counting weekends and holidays - costing Medicaid $341,273.71.
The top 10 prescribers in Pennsylvania's system that year wrote 9,557 Risperdal scripts costing Medicaid $1.76 million, according to figures provided by a state official to U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa , who has pushed for disclosure of such information and the relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical companies.
The numbers raised questions for Grassley, and Pennsylvania officials sent letters to scores of doctors emphasizing the need for safety in prescribing antipsychotic drugs. Twelve were suspended, dropped from Medicaid, or are under investigation, according to a copy of a letter to Grassley released Tuesday by the state welfare department.
The numbers also play a role in the U.S. Department of Justice's efforts to fight health care fraud. In the case of Risperdal, the Justice Department is negotiating with Johnson & Johnson, whose Janssen subsidiary makes the drug, to address allegations that the company illegally promoted it to doctors and through Medicaid programs.
Medicaid is the taxpayer-funded insurance plan for poor Americans and is administered by the federal and state governments.
J&J previously disclosed that it set aside money to settle criminal and civil charges in the Risperdal litigation, though it had not specified the amount.
Reports over the weekend from the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News said the Justice Department had demanded a payment of about $1.8 billion, an increase from the $1 billion figure reportedly negotiated by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia in December.
Spokesmen for J&J, the Justice Department, and the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.
The $1.8 billion figure would be the largest settlement for a case involving a single drug, but some of the other big settlements also involved antipsychotic drugs.
"Both Sen. Grassley and the Department of Justice are making great headway in the battle against Medicaid fraud," said Allen Jones, the former investigator for Pennsylvania's Office of Inspector General whose findings were ignored by state officials in 2004.
Jones was fired by state officials when he took the information to the New York Times, but his whistle-blower lawsuit resulted in J&J's paying $158 million to settle charges that it illegally marketed Risperdal through the Texas Medicaid system. Jones will get a portion of that settlement. He now works as an adviser to attorneys in related litigation.
Eli Lilly & Co. paid $1.7 billion to settle charges of illegal marketing of its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa. Pfizer Inc. paid $2.3 billion to settle charges of illegal marketing of several drugs, notably Bextra, but also its antipsychotic Geodon. Late in 2011, GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. said it had reached a deal to pay $3 billion to settle charges related to several drugs, including Avandia, but the Justice Department has declined to comment on that one as well.
Jones provided The Inquirer with state figures sent to Grassley's office in 2010 by Michael Nardone, then an official with the Pennsylvania Medical Assistance Program.
New Jersey never responded to Grassley's 2010 request for information nor a follow-up letter dated Jan. 24. State officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Delaware Medicaid officials responded to Grassley in 2010 and again in February.
J&J's Risperdal lost patent protection at the end of 2007, so the 2008 figures were the beginning of the decline in costs as generic versions were used more often.
As a comparison, AstraZeneca P.L.C.'s antipsychotic, Seroquel, is just now losing patent protection on most versions.
In 2008, the top 10 prescribers in Pennsylvania wrote 18,705 prescriptions for Seroquel, costing Medicaid $3.67 million. State officials provided The Inquirer with the most recent response to Grassley. That letter says the top 10 prescribers wrote 17,692 scripts for Seroquel, costing Medicaid $5.73 million.
In 2010, AstraZeneca paid $520 million to settle charge of illegal marketing of Seroquel.
"I liken the DOJ effort to a storm surge building for a long time," Jones said, crediting Grassley and a few others in Congress for helping to push the issue. "They have a clear eye on the dirty ways of fraudulent marketing and are systematically exposing it. It is changing the way antipsychotic drugs are marketed in America."
Contact David Sell at 215-854-4506 or dsell@phillynews.com.
Controversy continues to swell around the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, better known as DSM-5. A new study suggests the 900-page bible of mental health, scheduled for publication in May 2013, is ripe with financial conflicts of interest.
The manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association, details the diagnostic criteria and recommended treatments -- many of which are pharmacological -- for each and every psychiatric disorder. After the 1994 release of DSM-4, the APA instituted a policy requiring expert advisors to disclose drug industry ties. But the move toward transparency did little to cut down on conflicts, with nearly 70 percent of DSM-5 task force members reporting financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies -- up from 57 percent for DSM-4.
"Organizations like the APA have embraced transparency too quickly as the solution," said Lisa Cosgrove, associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and lead author of the study published today in the journal PLoS Medicine. "Our data show that transparency has not changed the dynamic."
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ ’s departing Chief Executive Officer William C. Weldon will receive $143.5 million in retirement pay, the world’s second-biggest seller of health products said today in a regulatory filing.
Alex Gorsky is scheduled to take the helm of New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J on April 26, making him the ninth leader in the company’s 126-year history. Weldon, 63, who will remain chairman, amassed $95.1 million in deferred and long-term compensation during his 40 years with the company, where he started as a sales representative in 1971.
William C. Weldon, chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson & Johnson (J&J . Photographer: Joshua Prezant/Bloomberg
Weldon’s pension has a present value of $48.4 million, which he will receive in monthly payments after he retires, the company said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His total compensation fell to $26.8 million in 2011 from $28.7 million a year earlier, the second consecutive annual decline, as the company struggled with recalls of artificial hip implants and over-the-counter drugs, and safety concerns involving vaginal mesh products.
Gorsky, who heads the devices and supply-chain units, beat out Sheri S. McCoy, the leader of the company’s branded-drug units, for the top spot. Gorsky was paid $6.8 million in total compensation in 2011 while McCoy received $8.7 million, according to the company’s filing.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net
Salary: Open
Description: We are currently seeking a talented and motivated Project Toxicologist to join our preclinical development team, reporting to the Associate Director, Toxicology. This position is responsible for all aspects of preclinical toxicology related to the development of novel antibody therapeutics. Essential Functions: - Design, implement, and monitor outsourced toxicology studies - Critically review toxicology data and provide input on safety assessments - Prepare toxicology-related documents for internal reports and regulatory submissions. - Participate in cross-functional development-team activities. - Other responsibilities and duties as required Experience: - Ph.D. or DVM, with 3 to 5 years of pharmaceutical/drug development experience - DABT certification desirable but not required Required Skills: -Ability to apply principles of toxicology, pharmacology, pathology, animal biology and analytical sciences to advance drug development efforts. -Strong oral and written communication skills -Strong working knowledge of Good Laboratory Practice regulations -Ability to solve problems creatively to meet aggressive development timelines in a matrix environment We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package including stock incentives, 401k with company match as well as the expected health and welfare benefits. Comprehensive relocation benefits are available, as required.
Contact: tcilmi@judge.com
This job and many more are available through The Judge Group. Find us on the web at www.judge.com
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