Article by ROBERT PEAR in November 24 New York Times says “top executives from two dozen drug companies” including Amgen, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Merck are “alarmed at the prospect of Democratic control of Congress.” The executives met in Washington last week “to assess what appears to them to be a harsh new political climate, and to draft a battle plan. ” Pear’s report continues:

Hoping to prevent Congress from letting the government negotiate lower drug prices for millions of older Americans on Medicare, the pharmaceutical companies have been recruiting Democratic lobbyists, lining up allies in the Bush administration and Congress, and renewing ties with organizations of patients who depend on brand-name drugs.

Many drug company lobbyists concede that the House is likely to pass a bill intended to drive down drug prices, but they are determined to block such legislation in the Senate. If that strategy fails, they are counting on President Bush to veto any bill that passes. . . . .

While that showdown is a long way off, the drug companies are not wasting time. They began developing strategy last week at a meeting of the board of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America . . . .

Full story at New York Times, may require registration (free) and log in.

People, families and medical caregivers want improvements for those who die in hospital intensive care. In an era of increasing trust in use of home hospice many people say that they would prefer to die at home, or in a homelike setting. But a considerable number of patients with chronic, life-threatening illnesses enter hospital for acute care near the end of life and die in an intensive care unit (ICU).

Today 1 in 5 deaths in the United States takes place in the intensive care unit (ICU) or shortly after receiving intensive care, a trend that is likely to continue, according to intensive care specialists writing in a supplement to this month’s Critical Care Medicine.

More patients with severe illness are arriving at ICUs, the authors explain, and many families and patients with chronic, life-limiting diseases are opting for a trial period of intensive care. The patients have needs which traditional ICUs were not specifically designed to meet, especially needs for ongoing palliative or “comfort care.” And the families need and are asking for more information and support.

Full story:
http://www.psa-rising.com/living/end-of-life-care2-06.html

In today’s New York Times Health Section, RONI RABIN includes prostate cancer in a list of men’s health conditions that get less than a fair share of attention and research dollars compared with women’s health conditions:

“Cancer also strikes men disproportionately: one in three women at some point in life; one in two men. In part, that is a result of the fact that more men than women smoke, and possibly of occupational exposures.

But experts and advocates say that when it comes to government financing for the most common sex-specific reproductive cancers, breast cancer financing exceeds prostate cancer financing by more than 40 percent, with prostate cancer research receiving $394 million in 2005, and breast cancer receiving $710 million. The figures, for financing by the National Cancer Institute and Defense Department, were provided by the not-for-profit Prostate Cancer Foundation.

(full story…)

Protoxin, also called PRX302, is a drug being tested on men with localized recurrent prostate cancer in Phase I clinical trials in Texas and Vermont.

Patients considering this trial must have experienced recurrence after completing a full course of definitive external beam radiation or definitive brachytherapy (but not both) as primary therapy for diagnosed prostate cancer at least one year prior to enrollment

Our main news about Protoxin is here:
PSA-activated protoxin that kills prostate cancer: phase I clinical trial is underway
http://www.psa-rising.com/prostatecancer/protoxin1106.htm

A reader asked for a simpler, clearer explanation of what’s going on with this drug. Here’s what we know at the moment:

In Texas, one trial enrolled the first patients in May this year and is hoping to recruit 36 men with localized recurrent prostate cancer. Patients must have recurred after EBR or brachytherapy, have PSA level less than 20 ng/mL and PSA doubling time longer than 3 months. They must NOT be taking hormone drugs. Also, they must NOT have signs of metastatic disease including no bone metastases on bone scan, or any lymph node, lung, liver or soft tissue.
(full story…)

Life & Times Blog, launched by Los Angeles area PBS station KCET, has a story on the topic Prostate Cancer: Watchful Waiting Vs. Treatment.

The page includes a video interview with Eric Kaldor, who “didn’t want the side effects of impotence and incontinence. So Eric Kaldor opted for ‘watchful waiting.”‘ Check it out!

Also compare: “Treating elderly men right after diagnosis is better than the current ‘watchful waiting’,” February 2006.