Can we talk science/business?

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Anonymous

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there is science and business, getting wrapped up in investigations has been the death or near death of a lot of companies

So what do you think about.... (and come on, it can't all be crap!)

Will other stuff work? e.g. Neuvenge and beyond?

Do you believe the claims that Provenge will make zytiga work better? (if so, will it just work better or will people feel less sick-- do 2/3 of the zytiga patients really stop because they feel so sick? claims are made about Provenge satisfication, but do some get such strong flu symptoms that they stop?--I never hear about that, but it seems like people stop every drug you can think of.) Is T cell function a big issue for Zytiga and will Provenge help it?

Once you've done Zytiga, does it compromise the immune system enough that Provenge would be crazy?

Some think that if you wanted to be really aggressive, you'd combine Provenge with da Vinci prostate removal. What do you think? Would zytiga replace that? be better?

So, if you had prostate cancer and could do whatever you wanted to try and beat it, what would it be?

This is the sorta stuff I wish we talked about more around the place. We need to get back to the business of beating cancer rather than so much BS.
 












Let's first start off with the fact that an old fashioned radical prostatectomy is probably better than the overmarketed robotics crap. Provenge is dependent upon the immune system so getting pushed back the food chain by newer agents is a bad thing. Neuvenge is a pipe dream.
 












keep the opinions flowing!

does the da vinci technique have anything to recommend it? quick recovery? function?

Can a patient take a sensible path while trying to maintain erectile function? Or, is trying to do that compromising too much in the battle?

I'm still curious too, does anyone stop Provenge in the middle? The warning label makes it sound like the flu like symptoms can border on ebola, is the rate quitting Zytiga really as high as nearly 2/3?
 






and, my real point is that when we are talking about this at lunch and coffee rather than obsessing about who shouda shouda-int and when, we might well be a great company!

call me the lab guy...
 






What determines "off label" use reimbursement?

Am I wrong that doctors can prescribe Zytiga off label and get reimbursed, but you can't do that with Provenge?

I assume that statement is about Medicare rather than insurance in general, although
maybe it's Universal.

The total costs are similar, so is it just the lower per dose cost of Zytiga?

or, is Zytiga "a drug" whereas Provenge has some other designation
("biologic"? or proceedure? owing to taking something out of you and putting
it back in).

I'm just curious about this claimed difference.

Are our guys working on this issue?
 






Does 2/3rds of patients quitting a trial bias the results?

Much has been made of Zytiga "failing" the survival arm of the trial.

But, could the "PSA" arm have been biased by so many quitting?

It would be easy to make up a story how this could happen.

Once PSA is part of the outcome to be tested, are the patient and physician forbidden to see the numbers?

I suppose there's lots of biases to worry about when a drug makes you so sick. If you feeling really bad and are near end of life, it's another reason to quit,

2/3rds makes me really frightened of biases... I can't make up lots that would make the drug look better, but I'm not so good on coming up with the stories that make the drug look worse that it is. (You could say that people who got sick were helped, but quit anyway and went off and joined the Provenge trial, but there they'd still have the luck of the draw for drug/placebo)

2/3rds, wow!
 












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