Shipley Center Website Offers Prostate Cancer Facts for Patients

One in every seven men in the United States will get prostate cancer, making it the second most common type, after skin cancer, for American men. It tends to be a slow-growing disease, but can sprint to life-threatening severity if detected too late. Screening for prostate cancer can yield false-positive findings, but those most at risk for the disease—men whose father or a brother had prostate cancer, African American men, overweight men, and those in their 60s and 70s who are in good health and could expect years more of life—still should ask their doctors whether screening makes sense for them.

The website for the Shipley Prostate Cancer Research Center provides basic information about the prostate gland and how disease affects it.

That information comes from the just-launched website of the Shipley Prostate Cancer Research Center at the School of Medicine. Created with a $10.5 million gift from BU trustee Richard Shipley (Questrom’68,’72), the center’s labs will be in the Conte Building on the Medical Campus when it opens. The center’s research will be focused on finding genomic approaches to determine which prostate cancers are aggressive and need treatment, and which can simply be monitored.
The center’s website and its Facebook page and Twitter account are up and running now, offering easy-to-follow, impartial information on practically everything anyone needs to know about prostate cancer. There’s “Prostate 101,” an overview about the prostate, information about prostate cancer and getting a second opinion, and a checklist of symptoms; information on screening; treatment options; and the state of research.
This knowledge is available to patients everywhere, “irrespective of where they choose to get their medical care or where they are in terms of testing, diagnosis, or treatment,” says site editor Gretchen Gignac, a School of Medicine associate professor of hematology and medical oncology.

Most cases of prostate cancer are slow-growing tumors that have a very high cure rate, but some cases are fast-growing.

For its founding donor, the center is as much a beacon of information to patients as an incubator for medical research. Shipley was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014 and chose focal laser ablation, a new and less invasive treatment than surgery and other therapies.
“The website will be unique in that it will provide up-to-date information, both on diagnostic and treatment options, in a form the layman can easily understand,” Shipley says.
Read More: http://snip.ly/olj5q#http://www.bu.edu/today/2017/shipley-center-website-offers-prostate-cancer-facts-for-patients/

Pharmaceutical companies gave $12m to doctors, nurses and pharmacists

Pharmaceutical companies gave Australian doctors, nurses and pharmacists almost $12m in fees and expenses to attend conferences and give talks between November 2016 and April 2017.
The payments comprised more than $6.5m for travel expenses and accommodation; more than $4.2m in speaking and consultancy fees; and more than $700,000 to cover registration at medical conferences and events.
The drug companies Bristol-Myers Squibb and Amgen both spent more than $1m over the six months and one doctor received more than $39,000.
Health economists Prof Philip Clarke from the University of Melbourne and Dr Barbara de Graaff from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research in Tasmania conducted an analysis for Guardian Australia on the $11,667,253 in pharmaceutical payments made to healthcare professionals.

Australian doctors to ban drug company reps from visiting surgeries

Under the updated Medicines Australia code of conduct, pharmaceutical companies were required to disclose all payments made to healthcare professionals by 29 August. Previously, this disclosure required the consent of the health practitioners, which in many cases

Read More information: http://snip.ly/mulqf#https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/12/pharmaceutical-companies-gave-12m-to-doctors-nurses-and-pharmacists

Marketing and promotion of drugs and medical devices

Regulation of the promotional aspects of prescription drugs, biologics, medical devices and biotechnology products with the intention of ensuring that the information contained in the promotion material is not false or misleading is one of the chief objectives of the FDA.

The FDA regulates the promotional materials of all drugs, and this includes both labeling and advertisements. Brochures, booklets, detailing pieces, bulletins, calendars, motion pictures and slides are some of the examples of labeling, while materials published in journals, magazines, other periodicals, and newspapers, and advertisements broadcast through media such as radio, television and telephone communications systems are examples of advertising.

The FDA also regulates another avenue of drug promotion and advertising, namely detailing. This kind of promotion is the one that pharma companies do to doctors in a variety of venues such as medical offices, hospitals, pharmacies, at medical meetings and symposia, academic settings, conferences and other meeting facilities.

The FDA’s reach in monitoring and regulating promotions also covers direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertising. In this area, it has complete jurisdiction over prescription drug labeling and advertising and all medical device labeling, but has limited jurisdiction over medical device advertising.

Severe penalties for offenders

For decades, the FDA has been regulating traditional advertising, during the course of which it has been publishing several kinds of guidance documents for industry, and has issued many violation letters. The corrective actions that companies have to implement if the FDA adjudges that drug or medical device promotional material is false or misleading or does not give a proper account of the product needed to enable consumers to weigh the benefits and risks are very expensive and time consuming. They have to carry out expensive remedial advertising, have to cough up huge fines, and also face the prospect of having their reputation sullied on account of these enforcement actions from the FDA.

In addition, it can also criminally prosecute relevant executives of such organizations under the provisions of a strict liability standard. This law gives the government sweeping powers, by which it is not obliged or required to show that the executive facing prosecution had the intention of violating FDA regulations or was knowledgeable about such violations.

The agency has already netted billions of dollars in fines, forfeitures and disgorgements from drug companies for the alleged marketing of a product for unapproved, or "off-label," uses.

Are the FDA’s laws obsolete?

Yet, the general consensus is that the law governing drug and device marketing is both outmoded and insufficient to deal with the speed at which technology-enabled promotion campaigns appear out of nowhere and disappear in a jiffy. Experts feel that the FDA is still very conservative and traditional in adapting technologies needed for detecting and nailing down such promotion campaigns that technology has brought about. Naturally, the regulatory circles are eager to see how the FDA will deal with the advanced communication technology that goes into promotion campaigns that can make the advertisement go viral and leave the scene just as quickly.

These are important aspects for organizations in the drugs, biologics, medical devices and biotechnology areas. These companies need to be completely aware of the law governing advertising and need to understand the FDA’s thinking on what it considers false and misleading advertising. This knowledge is absolutely essential, considering the broad sweep of powers that the FDA has.

Important learning on the FDA’s approach to promotions and advertising

This important understanding will be imparted at a two-day seminar that is being organized by GlobalCompliancePanel, a leading provider of professional trainings for the areas of regulatory compliance. At this seminar, David R. Dills, Global Regulatory Affairs and Compliance Consultant, who provides regulatory affairs and compliance consultative services, will be the Director. To gain insights into the FDA’s thinking on how it perceives advertisements and promotions as false and misleading, please register for this seminar by visiting Marketing and promotion of drugs and medical devices. This seminar has been pre-approved by RAPS as eligible for up to 12 credits towards a participant's RAC recertification upon full completion.

Advertising aimed at healthcare professionals and consumers

Prescription drug promotion is aimed at and delivered to two distinct audiences: Health care professionals (HCPs) and consumers. The FDA recognizes that promotional efforts can provide these audiences important information about the newest developments in drug therapies. So, it insists that such information has to have integrity and completeness.

Also, healthcare professionals, sales representatives and consumers use the social media to discuss the use of prescription products for specific diseases and conditions, a factor that has to be taken into account. David will discuss this and the potential concerns it carries.