November 19, 2015. The Washington Post. Precision medicine is the next big thing in health care, and it’s also one of the few health goals that Congress and the White House agree on. But while we await treatments targeting the precise genetic makeups of individuals and diseases, medical researchers still are not paying enough attention to the most important kinds of differences among patients: those of sex, age and race.
October 25, 2015. Politico. The Senate’s companion effort to the House-passed 21st Century Cures is struggling to navigate a dramatically different political reality than the one that helped rocket the medical innovation bill through the lower chamber over the summer.
October 22, 2015. Medscape Medical News. In approving new cancer drugs, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now heavily relying on surrogate markers of effectiveness, such as tumor shrinkage, instead of proof that an agent improves survival, according to a new analysis.
Are members of the military and their families at higher risk of some cancers?
October 20, 2015. ProPublica. In Congress, however, things are looking better for the manufacturers. Legislation is advancing that would speed up the FDA’s approval process for medications and medical devices, offering a rare example of how major initiatives can get traction even in today’s gridlocked Washington.
October 2, 2015. Center for Responsive Politics. Soaring drug prices already had customers unhappy. The pharmaceutical industry hardly needed a new poster boy to add volume and passion to the complaints.