DailyDirt: Better Medicine

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Feb 14th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Modern medicine has come a long way, but it still has a long way to go -- especially when it comes to figuring out whether or not drugs are even doing better than a placebo. Categorizing and quantifying the development of drugs in a more public way could speed up the progress of new treatments, so it's nice to see some folks getting around to doing just that. Here are some links about drugs and a relatively new way to diagnose brain disorders.

The Pillbox project is organizing a huge database of various drugs and their interactions. This probably duplicates databases from pharmacies like Walmart/Walgreens, but the data will be public. [url]
With near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), psychiatric diagnoses might be more accurately determined. Or at least, these brain scans will create a database of brain patterns to help categorize various mental conditions. [url]
The contribution of public-sector research institutions (PSRIs) for developing FDA-approved drugs and vaccines has been quantified. "Virtually all the important, innovative vaccines that have been introduced during the past 25 years have been created by PSRIs." [url]
LSD has a pretty interesting history. Derivatives of the drug could have a more interesting future, too. [url]
To discover more biotech stuff, check out what's roaming around in the StumbleUpon jungle. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Filed Under: drugs, lsd, near-infrared spectroscopy, pillbox, public-sector research institutions

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Pixelation, 14 Feb 2011 @ 6:09pm

"The Pillbox project is organizing a huge database of various drugs and their interactions"

Sweet! Now I won't need to experiment anymore. Hmmm... what "side affects" am I looking for?
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Feb 2011 @ 9:39pm

"The contribution of public-sector research institutions (PSRIs) for developing FDA-approved drugs and vaccines has been quantified. "Virtually all the important, innovative vaccines that have been introduced during the past 25 years have been created by PSRIs." [url]"

But without patents awarded the private sector corporations, the public won't fund any R&D.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Feb 2011 @ 9:44pm

Finally a link to the pillbox :)
I have been scratching my head for weeks now trying to remember what it was called.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Feb 2011 @ 9:46pm

Re:
I think the U.S. government is close to get what they wanted.

1.2 billion people suing them out of the market.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/02/14/china.intellectual.property/index.html?hpt=C2
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Feb 2011 @ 11:36pm

"With the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act, colleges and universities immediately began to develop and strengthen the internal expertise needed to effectively engage in the patenting and licensing of inventions. In many cases, institutions that had not been active in this area began to establish entirely new technology transfer offices, building teams with legal, business, and scientific backgrounds. These activities continue to accelerate nationally as the importance of the Bayh-Dole Act becomes fully appreciated. Evidence of this is reflected in the fact that the membership of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) increased from 200 in 1990 to 800 in 1999. 691 in 1989 to 2,178 in 1999. In 1979, the year before passage of the Bayh-Dole Act, the Association counted only 113 members."

http://www.ucop.edu/ott/faculty/bayh.html

So instead of encouraging businesses to conduct R&D, our system merely encourages them to waste money on lawyers. and they consider this a good thing. Someone needs to submit to Obama that this is not how innovation works.
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Pete Austin, 15 Feb 2011 @ 5:25am

Phrenology Returns!
Re: "With near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), psychiatric diagnoses might be more accurately determined. Or at least, these brain scans will create a database of brain patterns to help categorize various mental conditions."

Er, no. There are some conditions where this might make sense, because they are associated with localized damage (for example epilepsy), but in general it's no more than a crude indication.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2011 @ 5:50am

The Forbidden Medicine
By far and away, you have to admit that the best cure for any ailment is beef. Homer had his "Forbidden Doughnut" and I have my "Forbidden Hamburger"

No doubt this thing has a patent pending...
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/freakonomics-radio-waiter-theres-a-phys icist-in-my-soup-part-i/
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2011 @ 6:16am

Vaccines? How many companies even research vaccines? If the govt. didn't pass a law saying you can't sue a manufacturer for problems with a vaccine, there wouldn't be any manufacturers of vaccines, at least here in the US.
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CarlWeathersForPres (profile), 15 Feb 2011 @ 8:48am

Is Pillbox going to link the relevant studies, or just the overarching decisions?
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Michael Ho (profile), 15 Feb 2011 @ 12:27pm

Re: Phrenology Returns!
There are some conditions where this might make sense, because they are associated with localized damage (for example epilepsy), but in general it's no more than a crude indication.

[citation needed?]

As with most brain studies, the discovery of localized brain damage seems to be where progress starts, so the potential of this technique could be significantly more valuable than phrenology... It could also be about as useful as a "brain fingerprint" -- but hopefully the scientific method will determine that shortly.
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