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Biotech gangsters?
Posted
at
1:44 pm
by Eric Fetters
Biotech is a business, and thus it can get a bit rough and tumble. Companies take over other companies, ruthless financial decisions need to be made, etc.
But it's not the mob underworld, either. When people get hurt, it's either financially or careerwise. No one gets whacked in biotech, right?
Well ... I read this story today in the The Washington Post (occasional disclaimer: The Washington Post Co. owns the Herald), and now I'm not so sure. Cancer researchers needing bodyguards? Death threats!?!
This story has a local angle: This all revolves around Dendreon's Provenge, the prostate cancer vaccine that has become the center of controversy since the FDA declined to approve it in May, asking instead for more evidence of its effectiveness. You've read about it here before; speculation and rumor over the chances of FDA approval for the drug have caused Dendreon's stock price to rise and fall dramatically about as often as the tides lately.
Oncologists Howard I. Scher and Maha Hussain were among those who had raised questions about Provenge, and since the FDA's nondecision in May, they've legitimately feared for their safety at times, according to the Post story.
It just show how high the stakes have become in the minds of investors and patient advocates.
Key quote: "'Something has changed,' said Marie Hojnacki, who studies patient advocate groups at Penn State University. 'It's become an increasingly competitive atmosphere, and both patient advocacy groups and others, including pharmaceutical companies, are doing what they feel like they need to do, which means being very aggressive about getting what they want.'"
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