Cablevision says Sandy outage hit half of its customers

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Cable operator Cablevision Systems Corp said on Thursday about half of its 3.3 million customers in the New York, Connecticut and New Jersey area had lost power in the wake of superstorm Sandy, causing widespread disruptions to its service.

Cablevision said in a statement that 1.6 million of its customers were without power while 7,265 of the remaining 1.65 million customers who were not affected by power outages still had no access to Cablevision’s service.

The company did not respond to questions about how the disruption would impact its financials.

A Barclays analyst, James Ratcliffe, said in a note that “power outages make a good proxy for storm impact on telcos and cable operators, since the same factors which cause power outages (flooding, downed lines) also cause telecom network failures.”

Cablevision, which provide Internet, television and telephone services under the Optimum brand, said, “Following this unprecedented event, loss of electrical power continues to be the primary cause of widespread disruptions of Optimum service.”

It said it had crews working to restore service and would continue to provide updates.

Last year, Cablevision said it took a hit of $ 16 million because of Hurricane Irene, a storm that affected the New York area in late August 2011.

“For CVC, with 1.6 million of their subscribers still without power, the impact is likely to be significantly greater than the $ 16 million cost of Irene; we estimate a $ 36 million impact,” Barclays’ Ratcliffe said in his note.

Cable operators Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable were also having service problems.

Time Warner Cable said it has had no reports of significant damage to its network, but said it was hard to assess the situation because many of its customers have no power.

Cablevision had been due to report earnings November 1, but said on Wednesday it rescheduled the release to November 6.

The company, which mainly serves the New York area but also has operations in Montana and Wyoming, is controlled by the Dolan family. The company also owns a newspaper and TV networks.

Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications also said they had service problems in the wake of the storm, but they did not provide details as to how many customers were affected.

Of all the cable companies, Cablevision has the largest percentage of their subscribers in the area hard hit, Ratcliffe said.

Wireless service providers also struggled to maintain service after the storm due to floods and power outages.

Cablevision stock closed at $ 17.46 on Thursday, up 0.22 percent.

(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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UK cost agency backs melanoma drugs after price cuts

LONDON (Reuters) – Two new drugs for skin cancer have been recommended for use on Britain’s state-run health service after the rival manufacturers – Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb – agreed to cut their prices.

The move underscores the growing pressure on drug companies to cut deals with austerity-hit European governments in order to prove their expensive new medicines offer value for money.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) said on Friday it had issued final draft guidance recommending both Roche’s Zelboraf and Bristol‘s Yervoy after the companies offered undisclosed discounts.

NICE, which determines if products should be used by the National Health Service (NHS), had initially rejected both medicines, despite acknowledging that they represented a breakthrough in treating melanoma.

The list price for Zelboraf, which is only suitable for patients with a particular genetic profile, is 52,500 pounds ($ 84,600) for an average treatment span of seven months.

The price of a four-dose course of Yervoy, which is recommended only for people who have received prior chemotherapy, is 75,000 pounds.

($ 1 = 0.6207 British pounds)

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter)

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How Truth and Lies Spread on Twitter

Hurricane Sandy was a huge moment for New York City. It was also a huge moment for how we think about social media.

For many in the superstorm’s path up the Eastern seaboard, social networks quickly became an essential source of information from news organizations, civic organizations, and friends and family. As power went out in lower Manhattan on Monday evening, many residents turned to Twitter and Facebook on their smartphones to learn exactly how the hurricane was impacting their neighborhoods. CBS estimates three and a half million tweets with the hashtag #Sandy during the height of the storm; popular photo-sharing service Instagram saw 10 photos of Hurricane Sandy uploaded per second.

As my colleague Susan Berfield notes, social media’s role in distributing information reflects a growing trend in news consumption: according to the Pew Research Center’s State of the Media 2012 report, 36 percent of people who use Twitter for news said most of the links they follow come from friends and family, while 27 percent say most come from news organizations, and 18 percent mostly follow links from other organizations such as think tanks.

As vital information flooded Twitter and Facebook, misinformation soon bubbled to the top. Shashank Tripathi, a hedge fund analyst and the campaign manager of Christopher R. Wight, the Republican candidate for the U.S. House or Representatives from New York’s 12th Congressional District, pushed rumors on Twitter under the pseudonym @ComfortablySmug that the New York Stock Exchange floor was under three feet of water, a rumor that spread to CNN before an exchange official debunked his claim. Fake photos of scuba divers in the New York subways and enormous storm systems over Manhattan ricocheted across social networks at lightning speed. The entire media ecosystem became embroiled in a perpetual game of “Two Truths and a Lie.”

Twitter proved effective not just as a newswire, but as a medium for distributed fact-checking. As quickly as the falsehoods emerged, journalists and city officials moved to swat them down. BuzzFeeds Jack Steuf quickly revealed the identity of @ComfortablySmug, who issued a public apology Tuesday night. The Atlantic‘s Alexis Madrigal, aided by Atlantic social media editor Chris Heller and MSN international editor Tom Phillips—who runs a microsite ‘Is Twitter Wrong?‘ devoted to debunking rumors on social media—verified the stunning images floating across the Internet. Even the New York Post reported that Mayor Michael Bloomberg planned on barring passenger cars from entering Manhattan, only to be quickly rebuked by press secretary Marc La Vorgna.

After the storm passed, BuzzFeed’s John Herrman argued that Hurricane Sandy established Twitter is a truth machine that, under the right circumstances, systematically vets and destroys rumors as quickly as it propagates them. “Initial misinformation has consequences, and a consensus correction on Twitter won’t stop any number of these rumors from going viral on Facebook,” Herrman writes. “There, your claims are checked by your friends; on Twitter, if they spread, they’re open to direct scrutiny from people who might actually know the truth.” In the echo chamber of social media, truth is louder than fiction.

No matter what, no decentralized network like Twitter or Facebook will be totally free from misinformation, says Jeff Jarvis, associate professor at City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism and author of Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live.  But, he adds, “The lie can spread fast, but the truth can spread faster, too.” He provides his own experience with Hurricane Sandy as an example. “As I scroll down in reverse order on Twitter, I see correction after correction. I see 10 times as many corrections as erroneous reports. And the time between them is amazingly small.”

In terms of daily news consumption, a fraction of the U.S. uses Twitter, but everyone talks to their siblings, their parents, their coworkers, their friends. Text messaging, email, and ‘dark social’ networks spread misinformation just as quickly, and to more people. This is a potential problem with Twitter as a medium for truth and lies: what happens on Twitter doesn’t stay on Twitter. If we’re to continue the favored epidemiology metaphor of the Internet-employed, information that goes viral can become airborne: it leaves the Twitter network, where the journalists and reporters and ‘influentials’ who can quickly propagate corrections can’t reach.

I experienced this first-hand during Hurricane Sandy. after retweeting a message warning about muggers in Williamsburg dressed as ConEd workers as an experiment, I received two skeptical responses checking the claim within 15 minutes, both from people who work in the media industry and spend a significant amount of time on Twitter. Within an hour, I received a mass text message from friends of mine who aren’t completely plugged into the social web with the same warning: “I just read a news alert of two seperate reports of people posing as coned workers, knocking on people’s door and robbing them at gunpoint in williamsburg. I just want to pass along the info. Stay safe and maybe don’t answer your door.” Two other friends responded with thanks.

“I know a lot of people, especially on Facebook, who end up believing whatever they see first,” says Kate Gardiner, a social media journalist. “It’s almost impossible to track something back to its point of origin there.”

While the space for distributed fact-checking offered by Twitter and Facebook may not be perfect, it’s a vast improvement over the rumor mills and slow debunking of the past, says Jarvis. “Look, my dear beloved father sends out these emails that have been forwarded 87 times, and my sister, who isn’t a tech saavy person at all, goes to Snopes and says ‘Dad, not true.’ We all have fathers and uncles who send this crap around, but there’s a mechanism now to go out and debunk these things that we haven’t had before. I think it’s an improvement, and looking at the one-in-a-billion lies misses the point.”

Keller is director of social media for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek.

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Clinton calls for overhaul of Syrian opposition

ZAGREB (Reuters) – The United States called on Wednesday for an overhaul of Syria‘s opposition leadership, saying it was time to move beyond the Syrian National Council and bring in those “in the front lines fighting and dying”.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, signaling a more active stance by Washington in attempts to form a credible political opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said a meeting next week in Qatar would be an opportunity to broaden the coalition against him.

“This cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes but who, in many instances, have not been inside Syria for 20, 30, 40 years,” she said during a visit to Croatia.

“There has to be a representation of those who are in the front lines fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom.”

Clinton’s comments represented a clear break with the Syrian National Council (SNC), a largely foreign-based group which has been among the most vocal proponents of international intervention in the Syrian conflict.

U.S. officials have privately expressed frustration with the SNC’s inability to come together with a coherent plan and with its lack of traction with the disparate internal groups which have waged the 19-month uprising against Assad’s government.

Senior members of the SNC, Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other rebel groups ended a meeting in Turkey on Wednesday and pledged to unite behind a transitional government in coming months.

“It’s been our divisions that have allowed the Assad forces to reach this point,” Ammar al-Wawi, a rebel commander, told Reuters after the talks outside Istanbul.

“We are united on toppling Assad. Everyone, including all the rebels, will gather under the transitional government.”

Mohammad Al-Haj Ali, a senior Syrian military defector, told a news conference after the meeting: “We are still facing some difficulties between the politicians and different opposition groups and the leaders of the Free Syrian Army on the ground.”

Clinton said it was important that the next rulers of Syria were both inclusive and committed to rejecting extremism.

“There needs to be an opposition that can speak to every segment and every geographic part of Syria. And we also need an opposition that will be on record strongly resisting the efforts by extremists to hijack the Syrian revolution,” she said.

Syria’s revolt has killed an estimated 32,000. A bomb near a Shi’ite shrine in a suburb of Damascus killed at least six more people on Wednesday, state media and opposition activists said.

NEW LEADERSHIP

The meeting next week in Qatar’s capital Doha represents a chance to forge a new leadership, Clinton said, adding the United States had helped to “smuggle out” representatives of internal Syrian opposition groups to a meeting in New York last month to argue their case for inclusion.

“We have recommended names and organizations that we believe should be included in any leadership structure,” she told a news conference.

“We’ve made it clear that the SNC can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition. They can be part of a larger opposition, but that opposition must include people from inside Syria and others who have a legitimate voice which must be heard.”

The United States and its allies have struggled for months to craft a credible opposition coalition.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has said it is not providing arms to internal opponents of Assad and is limiting its aid to non-lethal humanitarian assistance.

It concedes, however, that some of its allies are providing lethal assistance – a fact that Assad’s chief backer Russia says shows western powers are intent on determining Syria’s future.

Russia and China have blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at increasing pressure on the Assad government, leading the United States and its allies to say they could move beyond U.N. structures for their next steps.

Clinton said she regretted but was not surprised by the failure of the latest attempted ceasefire, called by international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi last Friday. Each side blamed the other for breaking the truce.

“The Assad regime did not suspend its use of advanced weaponry against the Syrian people for even one day,” she said.

“While we urge Special Envoy Brahimi to do whatever he can in Moscow and Beijing to convince them to change course and support a stronger U.N. action we cannot and will not wait for that.”

Clinton said the United States would continue to work with partners to increase sanctions on the Assad government and provide humanitarian assistance to those hit by the conflict.

(Additional reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; editing by Andrew Roche)

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Pentagon sees further use of BlackBerry as door opens to others

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon on Wednesday said it would continue to support “large numbers” of BlackBerry phones made by Research in Motion Ltd even as it moves forward with plans that would allow the U.S. military to begin using Apple Inc‘s iPhone and other devices.

The U.S. Defense Department last week invited companies to submit bids for software that can monitor, manage and enforce security requirements for devices made by Apple and Google Inc, with an eye to awarding a contract in April.

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) quietly posted its request for proposals on a federal website on October 22, the same day that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency said it would end its contract with RIM in favor of Apple’s iPhone.

Losing some of its Pentagon business to other providers could deal another blow to RIM, which once commanded the lead in the smartphone market but has rapidly lost ground to Apple and Samsung’s line of products as customers abandon its aging BlackBerry devices.

For many years, the Pentagon relied solely on BlackBerry phones because RIM met its tough security requirements, but other companies have been improving security on their devices, and a growing number of military commanders are clamoring for rival devices with bigger touch screens and faster browsers.

A Pentagon spokesman said the U.S. military was working toward allowing vendors to supply other smartphones, while maintaining strict security requirements.

He said the department aimed to use commercial mobile technologies as it stepped up the use of “new and innovative applications” to support the military’s evolving requirements.

But the Pentagon also stressed it was not moving away from its use of BlackBerry phones.

“DISA is managing an enterprise email capability that continues to support large numbers of RIM devices while moving forward with the department’s planned mobile management capability that will support a variety of mobility devices,” the spokesman said.

The DISA request for proposals said the software would manage at least 162,500 devices to start, but that number could grow to 262,500 by the end of the contract, which will have a one-year base and four six-month options.

Ultimately, the Pentagon wants the software to support a total of 8 million devices, according to the document.

RIM spokesman Paul Lucier said his company’s BlackBerry Mobile Fusion product could also be used to manage Android and Apple devices, and RIM was “excited for the opportunity to include BlackBerry Mobile Fusion in the DOD’s portfolio.”

Lucier said the product could enable the Pentagon to “support a growing number of mobile devices across multiple platforms.”

Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM is also planning to introduce new smartphones that will run on the BlackBerry 10 operating system, offering a faster and smoother user interface and a better platform for various smartphone applications.

(Reporting By Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Sanofi draws fire over cost of MS drug Lemtrada

PARIS (Reuters) – Medical journal The Lancet warned that Sanofi‘s experimental multiple sclerosis drug Lemtrada may be too costly for patients and health insurers once it gets approved by regulators.

The journal, which published the encouraging results of two late-stage Lemtrada tests on Thursday, also criticized the drugmaker’s decision to withdraw leukemia therapy Campath, the same drug given at a different dosage, depriving MS patients who had been using it off-label.

In an editorial accompanying the test results, The Lancet voiced concerns that Lemtrada would be priced higher than current MS drugs on the market and said the discontinuation of Campath may mean patients who had used it for MS would not be able to continue their treatment.

The injectable drug, chemically known as alemtuzumab, was sold until September 2012 under the name Campath as treatment for leukemia and given more frequently at a higher dosage.

“There is concern that with a license for multiple sclerosis, the cost of alemtuzumab could rise and might become too expensive for many patients and health systems,” the editorial said.

Although Campath remains available free of charge to leukemia patients, Sanofi’s rare disease unit Genzyme pulled it off the market in September to prevent its unauthorized use as an MS drug.

Analysts said the move would allow the company to adjust the price to match that of rival MS drugs on the market.

A full course of Campath, which in 2011 had sales of $ 76 million, cost around $ 60,000 when given three times a week for up to 12 weeks, according to Genzyme.

Lemtrada, instead, is given at less than half the dose of Campath for 5 consecutive days and then again for 3 days a year later. Since the drug has yet to be approved, it remains unclear how much Sanofi will charge for it.

The drug, which works by resetting a person’s immune system, has shown in late-stage trials to be an effective treatment for MS patients who have failed to respond to other therapies.

It has also shown to benefit people not previously treated for the disease, suggesting it could be used as a first-line MS therapy.

But patients need regular monitoring for serious side effects that can include infections and autoimmune diseases.

“It’s important that the appropriate safety monitoring is in place for patients who are prescribed Lemtrada,” Genzyme’s head of MS, Bill Sibold, told Reuters, responding to questions about the Lancet editorial. “Until an approved risk-management program is established, we believe the use of Lemtrada should only occur in clinical trials.”

Lemtrada remains available to patients who are taking part in clinical tests.

Sibold declined to discuss pricing plans for Lemtrada, but said Genzyme has set up programs to make its approved drugs available to patients who cannot afford them. “With Lemtrada it would be no different,” he said.

DRUG FUNDING

But there are concerns that cash-strapped European governments may balk at funding the drug through their public healthcare systems.

Doug Brown, Head of Biomedical Research at U.K. charity MS Society said that while Lemtrada’s results are great news for patients, the drug would only be useful to them if it were available through the country’s publicly funded National Health Service.

“We urge Genzyme to price the treatment responsibly so that if it’s licensed, it’s deemed cost effective on the NHS,” he said.

The U.K.’s cost-effectiveness body National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), whose opinions are also watched closely in other countries, initially rejected Novartis’ MS pill Gilenya, only to make a U-turn after the company agreed to a discounted price.

Sanofi launched its MS pill Aubagio in the U.S. at a price of $ 45,000 for a year’s treatment, making it cheaper than rivals.

Gilenya – the only other MS pill currently on the market – costs 28 percent more, while injectable treatments such as Biogen Idec Inc’s Avonex and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd’s Copaxone are 8 and 6.5 percent higher respectively.

(Reporting by Elena Berton; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Disney buys firm behind Star Wars

30 October 2012 Last updated at 17:25 ET

Disney is buying Lucasfilm, the company behind the Star Wars films, from its chairman and founder George Lucas for $ 4.05bn (£2.5bn).

Mr Lucas said: “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of film-makers.”

In a statement announcing the purchase, Disney said it planned to release a new Star Wars film, episode seven, in 2015.

That will be followed by episodes eight and nine and then one new movie every two or three years, the company said.

The last Star Wars film was 2005′s Revenge of the Sith, and Disney said it believed there was “substantial pent-up demand”.

Disney will pay about half in cash and half in stock, issuing 40 million Disney shares in the transaction.

The deal follows Disney’s acquisitions of Pixar studios for $ 7.4bn in 2006 and Marvel comics for $ 4.2bn in 2009.

“Our valuation of Lucasfilm is roughly comparable to the value we placed on Marvel when we announced that acquisition in 2009,” Disney said, adding that the valuation was almost entirely driven by the Star Wars franchise.

Transition

George Lucas launched Lucasfilm in 1971 and the first Star Wars film was released in 1977.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” Mr Lucas said.

“I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.”

Mr Lucas will continue as a creative consultant.

Kathleen Kennedy, currently co-chairman of Lucasfilm, will become president of the firm and will be the executive producer on the new Star Wars films.

Lucasfilm is also the production company behind the Indiana Jones franchise, and fantasy films Willow and Labyrinth.

Michael Corty, analyst at Morning Star, said Disney’s deal was clearly part of a pattern in buying new franchises.

“Pixar was the first big one, then Marvel, and now this one here,” he said.

“Because Lucas is private, I would assume most investors would be surprised.”

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Hurricane’s death toll rises to 65 in Caribbean

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — As Americans braced Sunday for Hurricane Sandy, Haiti was still suffering.

Officials raised the storm-related death toll across the Caribbean to 65, with 51 of those coming in Haiti, which was pelted by three days of constant rains that ended only on Friday.

As the rains stopped and rivers began to recede, authorities were getting a fuller idea of how much damage Sandy brought on Haiti. Bridges collapsed. Banana crops were ruined. Homes were underwater. Officials said the death toll might still rise.

“This is a disaster of major proportions,” Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told The Associated Press, adding with a touch of hyperbole, “The whole south is under water.”

The country’s ramshackle housing and denuded hillsides are especially vulnerable to flooding. The bulk of the deaths were in the southern part of the country and the area around Port-au-Prince, the capital, which holds most of the 370,000 Haitians who are still living in flimsy shelters as a result of the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Santos Alexis, mayor of the southern city of Leogane, said Sunday that the rivers were receding and that people were beginning to dry their belongings in the sun.

“Things are back to being a little quiet,” Alexis said by telephone. “We have seen the end.”

Sandy also killed 11 in Cuba, where officials said it destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of houses. Deaths were also reported in Jamaica, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico. Authorities in the Dominican Republic said the storm destroyed several bridges and isolated at least 130 communities while damaging an estimated 3,500 homes.

Jamaica’s emergency management office on Sunday was airlifting supplies to marooned communities in remote areas of four badly impacted parishes.

In the Bahamas, Wolf Seyfert, operations director at local airline Western Air, said the domestic terminal of Grand Bahamas‘ airport received “substantial damage” from Sandy’s battering storm surge and would need to be rebuilt.

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NBC sets premiere dates for “1600 Penn,” Eva Longoria series

LOS ANGELES, Oct 30 (TheWrap.com) – NBC announced midseason premiere dates Tuesday for three new series, including the Bill Pullman presidential comedy “1600 Penn” and the new Eva Longoria relationship series “Ready for Love.”

The network also announced the premiere date for the drama “Deception,” which was formerly known as “Infamous.”

In addition to the series premieres, the network announced return dates for several shows, including the on-the-bubble comedy “Community,” which will return to its previous Thursday night timeslot.

“Deception,” a dark family mystery starring Meagan Good and Victor Garber, premieres on Monday, January 7 at 10 p.m. It will follow “The Biggest Loser,” which starts its new season with a two-night premiere on January 6 and 7.

“1600 Penn,” starring Bill Pullman as the president in a comedy about the First Family, premieres Thursday, January 10 at 9:30. The series, which also stars Jenna Elfman and Josh Gad, was co-created by “Modern Family” director Jason Winer. It will join a slightly altered Thursday lineup.

“Parks and Recreation” moves to 8:30 on January 17, and “Community,” returns to 8 p.m. on February 7.

“Ready for Love,” a reality show executive produced by former “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria, will premiere Sunday, March 31 at 8 p.m.

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

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¿Las demandas por los efectos adversos de Neurontin aumentan el gasto en salud?

NUEVA YORK (Reuters Health) – En el 2004, el laboratorio

Pfizer aceptó declararse culpable y pagar más de 430 millones de

dólares por la acusación de haber comercializado el

antiepiléptico Neurontin ilegalmente para usos no aprobados.

Ahora, un estudio publicado en Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

cuestiona si el juicio terminó aumentando el gasto en otros

antiepilépticos en lugar de reducir los usos sin aprobación.

Los médicos pueden recetar fármacos con usos no autorizados

por las autoridades regulatorias de Estados Unidos, pero la

industria tiene prohibido comercializarlos con esos fines.

“En los últimos años hubo juicios importantes para penalizar

a las empresas farmacéuticas por la promoción ilegal de usos no

aprobados”, dijo Meredith Chace, investigadora especializada en

políticas farmacéuticas de la Facultad de Medicina de Harvard,

Boston. “Sospechábamos que eso podía tener consecuencias no

intencionales.”

Con su equipo analizó información del período 2001-2005 de

los seguros de salud federales Medicare y Medicaid. Se

concentraron en el tratamiento del trastorno bipolar, uno de los

distintos usos sin aprobar de Neurontin (gabapentina).

Desde la primera noticia publicada sobre el juicio en marzo

del 2002, la participación de Neurontin en el mercado de los

antiepilépticos que se utilizan para tratar el trastorno bipolar

se redujo del 21 al 15 por ciento.

En tanto, se disparó o siguió creciendo ese uso sin

aprobación de otros cuatro fármacos (uno de ellos aprobado más

adelante). Hasta el gasto en Neurontin aumentó, a pesar de que

se redujo su indicación.

“Desafortunadamente, el estudio sugiere que los médicos

siguieron indicando medicamentos sin efectividad probada para el

tratamiento del trastorno bipolar”, dijo el doctor Daniel

Carlat, psiquiatra y director del Proyecto Pew de Indicaciones

Médicas, que promueve políticas para limitar las relaciones

entre los médicos y la industria que afecten la atención de los

pacientes.

¿NO TAN DAÑINO COMO SE ESPERABA?

El nuevo estudio detalla que en el 2000, dos años antes de

que se conocieran las noticias sobre el juicio, las ventas de

Neurontin eran de casi 1.000 millones de dólares, principalmente

por sus usos no autorizados. Chace opinó que la cobertura

negativa de los medios influyó en parte en la caída de las

ventas de Neurontin y que es posible que el fabricante

aumentara los precios para anticiparse.

El equipo estima que el gasto gubernamental en

antiepilépticos para el tratamiento del trastorno bipolar

aumentó en más de 200 millones de dólares después del juicio,

sin incluir los potenciales cambios de indicaciones del mismo

producto para otras enfermedades, como la migraña, el síndrome

de piernas inquietas y distintos trastornos asociados con el

dolor.

“Las consecuencias no esperadas incluyen la sustitución de

otros productos similares y un aumento del gasto general”, dijo

Chace a Reuters Health.

Agregó que los ensayos clínicos habían demostrado que

Neurontin no es efectivo para el tratamiento del trastorno

bipolar, aunque con algunas excepciones.

Una limitación del estudio es no haber incluido información

sobre la inversión de la industria en la comercialización de sus

productos. Además, el cargo de Carlat está parcialmente

financiado con un subsidio que surgió del arreglo comercial de

la demanda contra Pfizer.

“Se desconoce si el juicio fue la causa del aumento de la

indicación de antiepilépticos y, por lo tanto, del gasto en

salud -dijo Carlat por e-mail-. El estudio no controló los

efectos de otros factores en las decisiones médicas, como la

estrategia de comercialización de otros productores de

antiepilépticos y la información científica de la efectividad de

otros fármacos.”

El doctor Randall S. Stafford, que no participó del estudio,

opinó sobre la posibilidad de que el juicio “no haya dañado a

Pfizer tanto como se esperaba”. Dijo por e-mail que “se estaba

venciendo la patente de Neurontin y el juicio sólo aceleró el

cambio deseado al uso sin aprobar de Lyrica”, un antiepiléptico

(pregabalina) que aún conserva su patente y fue motivo de otro

juicio similar contra Pfizer, que aceptó un convenio por 2.300

millones de dólares en el 2009.

Pfizer no realizó comentarios sobre resultados asociados “con

un acuerdo de hace una década”.

Chace consideró que las autoridades deberían trabajar con las

asociaciones médicas para informar a los profesionales sobre

estas crisis para que actúen adecuadamente.

FUENTE: Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, online 16 de octubre

del 2012

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