StillSleepy
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Biogenetic tests get personal, wait for payments to follow
Biogenetic tests get personal, wait for payments to follow
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - by Chris Rauber
<http://www.bizjournals.com/search/results.html?Ntt=%22Chris%20Rauber%22
&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode%20matchallpartial>
The first trick for makers of high-end biogenetic diagnostic tests for
AIDS, breast cancer and other diseases is to produce convincing clinical
results. The next hurdle is getting insurers -- either public, like
Medicare and Medicaid, or private -- to pay for the tests, which run
thousands of dollars each.
So far, only a handful of such high-priced assays are on the market, and
they're often tested in tandem with a drug aimed at the disease the test
focuses on. Experts say it will be years -- at least five to 10 --
before they become standard. But a dozen or more are in the pipeline,
with several Bay Area companies at or near the forefront.
Tests such as Trofile, designed by South San Francisco's Monogram
Biosciences Inc.
<http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/gen/Monogram_Biosciences%20Inc_9
7966FA8836543A6A9F591F59B237937.html> to identify which strain of HIV
is present, or Oncotype DX, from Redwood City-based Genomic Health Inc,
which identifies breast cancer patients who are the best targets for
chemotherapy or other treatments, are considered by some observers to be
on the cutting edge of personalized medicine, which attempts to identify
patients who will benefit from a particular drug or type of
pharmaceutical.
"If you think about drugs across all therapeutic areas, they only work
about 60 percent of the time, on average, and for cancer, they only work
about 25 percent of the time," says Kim Popovits, Genomic Health's
president. And when chemotherapy is used to treat early-stage breast
cancer, "it doesn't work at all in most women," she says.
Chris Rauber is a reporter at the San Francisco Business Times, an
affiliated publication.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Foundation to create online clinical assessment for Parkinson's patients
Foundation to create online clinical assessment for Parkinson's patients
The Michael J. Fox Foundation is trying to create a Web-based Clinical
Assessment Program to allow patients to participate in Parkinson's
disease clinical research from their home. Although the foundation says
that Web-based clinical assessment can't entirely take the place of
face-to-face interactions, they could be a supplement, especially since
Parkinson's disease can make it difficult for patients to travel to
clinical sites. The program will focus on developing an online
assessment tool, allowing users to access it, and implementing a pilot
study to test its efficacy. The program will receive up to $1 million in
funding for up to two years. The Foundation is accepting applications
for developing the assessments, which must be submitted online by May
14. Information is available at www.michaeljfox.org.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
