GLG News in Healthcare

The Visian ICL (Implantable Collamer Lens) is an exquisitely precise technology for the correction of high degrees of nearsightedness -- much higher than the reach of laser refractive surgery such as LASIK and PRK.  Given the price of the ICL and the intraocular surgey required for its implantation, the out-of-pocket expense for the patient is about US$4000 per eye (about...

Most hospitals are financially built on their heart programs. The "agressive" medical arm is conservative by our standards yet as good as stents at far less cost. If this was truly pursued by large companies with TPA insurance plans, their overall cost would drop with large savings in healthcare costs. They will need to eliminate disincentives (copays) to proper prescribing, replacing them with...

As a sales executive in the cardiac surgery market for many years, I have been involved with many aspects of this industry as well as having met many cardiac surgeons and seen numerous coronary surgeries. Overall, the success rate with stents is poor vs coronary bypass and certain follow up medications. The ratio of success vs failure is impressive when studying the success of stents.   Edward...

The ACCORD trial results were no suprise to our diabetes practice. We have been heavy users of Byetta since launch in 2005, and have seen the same results in our population of > 2000 diabetics with over 700 on Byetta. Since the Simpson et al study in the Canadian Journal of Medicine (CMAJ 2006;174(2):169-74) showing an increase in mortality with sulfonyurea from 1.3 to 2.1 fold, but a decrease...

 Transparency adds value by 1) driving knowledge based decision-making 2) building accountability at each decision point and 3) educating consumers  to options and  risks.  In the face of escalating unsustainable cost and the failure of the hospitals to build the infrastructure to drive efficiency, the government and other vested interests are mandating transparency through public...

You can only open up an artery so far. Whether you achieve this with drugs, or a mechanical device doesn't seem to matter as long as the blood gets flowing again.

To stent or not to stent: presence and degree of coronary artery disease, effectiveness of medical therapy and significance of symptoms and, therefore, indications for coronary stents placement are determined by very same physicians who place stents. Stents are reimbursed 10-20 times better than medical management.

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) or Electronic Health Records (EHR) are the most modern formats emerging in the medical field thanks to the innovations emerging in Information Technology Segment.  Most of the current day patients are aware of medical attention needs unlike the olden past. However, the nuances of EMR are yet to be propagated by the medical fraternity or by the providers as such...

The co-marketing with Abbott will undoubtedly help Crestor sales, if they can effectively develop a fenofibrate-rosuvastatin combination, and avoid over-burdening physicians with reps. However, there are other factors that will probably have a larger impact. 

Given what happened to Galvus, and the similar poor selectivity of saxagliptin for DPP-4 over other isoforms, I think that FDA approval is unlikely. There was also some data on changes in white count presented at the ADA that will hurt this agent. The FDA move to recommend outcome studies for DM treatments may also hurt them.