Link-O-Rama, Early March Edition

A few pieces of interesting news...

• Dr. Daniel Carlat has been busy. He aptly notes that Pristiq is an Effexor copycat that apparently provides no special benefits over soon to be generic venlafaxine. Hey, didn't I just write a piece or two about Effexor? In addition, Carlat continues to hammer the corrupting, I er, continuing medical education industry. He also documents the use of deceptive "surveys" to market antipsychotics. Excellent work -- keep it up! Dr. Grohol at PsychCentral pointed out another set of potential problems with the surveys.
  
• Furious Seasons puts forth Ye Olde Pimp Slappe on antidepressant use in bipolar disorder with a side dish of I Told You So. He has indeed questioned the use of antidepressants in bipolar disorder and the latest data continue to question the utility and safety of such practices. Philip Dawdy notes accurately that he is the only person in the USA to host the infamousZyprexa documents online. He also broke a number of excellent stories on said documents. All for the salary of zero dollars. So why not send him some money? He's doing a fundraiser currently. You can donate here. Hey, I'd like to rake in some donations for myself. I think I provide a somewhat valuable service, and my day job doesn't exactly make me rich. But when Dawdy is doing such work much more productively than myself and he doesn't even have a day job (file under journalism in crisis), I think he deserves your financial consideration, not I. So if you ever had the kindhearted intention of sending me cash to support my work, send your money to Philip Dawdy.
  
• Health Care Renewal is chronically excellent, as y'all know already. Recent stories include a fat conflict of interest involving the head of the Obesity Society, yet another chapter in the sordid University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey affair, and a take on the baseless lawsuit from HipSaver.
• Speaking of HipSaver, Aubrey Blumsohn has also written eloquently on this case, which I hope receives scrutiny from many sources. He also reports unfavorably about the sham investigation of GSK. Bob Fiddaman and Seroxat Secrets were similarly unimpressed.
• Peter Rost is on the job market.
• As usual, Pharmalot and PharmaGossip have continued to provide all the news that's fit to print. Of particular interest to my readers (I think) was the marketing of Abilify. Perhaps yet more interesting, the 6th episode of RX -- Sex, Drugs, and Quarterly Goals is up. Everyone should check out all six episodes. I'm hooked.
• Pharma Giles has been generating his usual brand of dead-on satire. I was particularly amused by his take on the most recent Kirsch antidepressant meta-analysis.
• In "who cares?" news, bifeprunox is apparently dead in the water. Better hope that Pristiq sells in droves, Wyeth...

As for myself, I have at least one piece in the works involving a key opinion leader and cash. Stay tuned.

Is Wyeth's Psychiatric Ship Sinking?

Wyeth's attempt at an antipsychotic (bifeprunox) was rejected by the FDA today. Liz Spikol has a post on the topic that I found immensely entertaining. Daniel Carlat points out why the drug was rejected -- because it does not work very well. Yes, some doses showed a bit of improvement over placebo, yet bifeprunox did not impress when tried head-to-head against risperidone or olanzapine. Adding this drug to an already crowded antipsychotic market would seemingly do little for people with schizophrenia but would help Wyeth, which is looking a little desperate these days considering it has little to replace its flagship antidepressant Effexor.

What about Pristiq, the "son of Effexor," -- well, that ain't looking so promising (1, 2, 3). Good luck, Wyeth. It appears you're going to need it!