Pharma Blog Watch

Provenge — Again (GoozNews)
In his blog, Merrill Goozner writes about the ongoing controversy surrounding Dendreon’s Provenge, an experimental prostate cancer drug. Goozner looks at what he views as the conflict of interest in the FDA’s appointments to the advisory committee evaluating the drug.

Goozner writes,  “[L]et me give my bottom line: two influential oncologists raised legitimate questions about whether the limited clinical trials completed so far warranted fast approval for the drug. But, because at least one of them was involved in running a late stage clinical trial for a rival therapeutic approach for prostate cancer, frustrated investors and some groups in the prostate cancer patient advocacy community raised howls of protest on internet bulletin boards and on Capitol Hill. There have even been anonymous death threats hurled at the two physicians, according to published reports.

“But let’s place the blame where it ought to be in this scientific fiasco. The FDA had no business appointing scientists testing a rival drug for another firm onto an advisory committee evaluating Provenge. Oncology is a field where the agency could easily find other clinicians willing to analyze these data who did not have conflicts of interest.”