tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post950587240853307115..comments2024-03-29T06:45:45.894+00:00Comments on Hyperlipid: Amgen share price and PCSK9 inhibition with RepathaPeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14527788116058656094noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-35844320017015864372017-04-02T03:57:50.585+00:002017-04-02T03:57:50.585+00:00This article reports that Amgen is financially gua...This article reports that Amgen is financially guaranteeing Repatha.<br /><br />https://endpts.com/heart-attack-while-on-repatha-amgen-will-give-you-your-money-back/<br /><br />But note two sequential sentences:<br /><br />"...significantly there was no impact on mortality or unstable angina.<br /><br />This was the first time that a trial has shown a clear cardio benefit from PCSK9 inhibition."<br /><br />If I didn't read Peter and some other folks (Eades, for example), I would be very confused.LA_Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09775262019154051166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-77666942864163933322017-03-30T09:02:00.099+00:002017-03-30T09:02:00.099+00:00Well, both Latin and French to be pedantic. If it ...Well, both Latin and French to be pedantic. If it was Latin it would probably be "Exultate jubilate: Fourier floppissimus est."<br /><br />Nice motto, must get it embroidered on my blazer pocket, over my heart. Passthecreamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01214860448492630477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-49835336492194544612017-03-30T05:15:29.267+00:002017-03-30T05:15:29.267+00:00Eric,
I was there too.....
https://www.youtube.c...Eric,<br /><br />I was there too.....<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsawP_Ew0r4<br /><br />PeterPeterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14527788116058656094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-87082623196761453232017-03-29T17:37:46.802+00:002017-03-29T17:37:46.802+00:00Eric,
Latin, French, it's all Greek to me. Ac...Eric,<br /><br />Latin, French, it's all Greek to me. Actually, I should have known when Google did a lousy job translating the headline from French. It works much better from Latin.<br /><br />Along those lines, Googling Was Fourier study a flop brings up a 2016 link about Apo-A1 Milano.<br /><br />http://cardiobrief.org/2016/11/08/novel-cholesterol-therapy-flops-and-company-ends-development/LA_Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09775262019154051166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-58579716222367933602017-03-29T14:17:56.869+00:002017-03-29T14:17:56.869+00:00Bob, hate to nitpick, but that headline is Latin, ...Bob, hate to nitpick, but that headline is Latin, not French.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15626165768870660952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-64340279765930679742017-03-29T04:37:54.553+00:002017-03-29T04:37:54.553+00:00For soft end points I suspect the ultra low LDL mi...For soft end points I suspect the ultra low LDL might influence a lot of decision making as to who gets a stent etc so FOURIER may well be measuring the biases of cardiologists rather than the actual need for interventions......<br /><br />PeterPeterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14527788116058656094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-83424975244312101592017-03-29T03:31:29.446+00:002017-03-29T03:31:29.446+00:00Peter, thanks for the link. The de Lorgeril paper ...Peter, thanks for the link. The de Lorgeril paper is quite a read. I can forget how to spell "pleiotropic" now.<br /><br />I thought it slightly amusing that de Lorgeril is associated with Joseph Fourier University, and the subject of your post is the FOURIER study. So, for grins and giggles I Googled lorgeril fourier, and the first hit was:<br /><br />Exultate jubilate : FOURIER est un flop ! - Michel de Lorgeril - Docteur ...<br /><br />I don't speak French, but I got the idea.LA_Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09775262019154051166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-84476487810516304442017-03-28T12:05:25.698+00:002017-03-28T12:05:25.698+00:00Eric, this number probably reflects power calculat...Eric, this number probably reflects power calculations to pick up a p less than 0.05 for a conglomerate of soft end points while keeping p greater than 0.05 for hard end points like the body counts.<br /><br />PeterPeterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14527788116058656094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-75648936215097133032017-03-28T09:23:34.423+00:002017-03-28T09:23:34.423+00:00ok, new try
Pfizer's Bococizumab, which was s...ok, new try<br /><br />Pfizer's Bococizumab, which was stopped in Nov. 2016 had trials with 10,000 + 17,000 = 27,000 participants (some report 33,000 but that seems to include the SPIRE2-FH trial which should be seen as separate from SPIRE1/2-HR).<br /><br />Amgen's Repatha (Evolucumab) also had 27,000 participants:<br />https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/18/drug-which-cuts-bad-cholesterol-can-help-prevent-heart-attacks-and-strokes<br /><br />What is the magic about this number?Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15626165768870660952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-83492057228853940652017-03-28T09:00:15.084+00:002017-03-28T09:00:15.084+00:00This comment has been removed by the author.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15626165768870660952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-72821319963062976922017-03-28T05:17:59.401+00:002017-03-28T05:17:59.401+00:00I think if an independent group replicated any of ...I think if an independent group replicated any of the statin studies the pleiotropic benefits would evaporate. de Longeril summed it up nicely, there are no pleiotropic beneficial effects. There is no controversy.<br /><br />http://jcbmr.com/index.php/jcbmr/article/view/11/26<br /><br />PeterPeterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14527788116058656094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-71805982875747704102017-03-27T23:08:22.340+00:002017-03-27T23:08:22.340+00:00"Bob, I don't follow the markets at all, ..."Bob, I don't follow the markets at all, I guess it shows!!"<br /><br />You'd be surprised. That pretty graph you put up made you look a lot smarter than you claim to be. I think a lot of smart people write for Seeking Alpha, but charts and graphs provide a sheen of expertise that may or may not exist.<br /><br />Kind of like nutritional research, eh?<br /><br />"My biggest worry is that one day a lipid lowering drug will be developed which will have some off target beneficial effect which will be mis-applied to the cholesterol lowering effect".<br /><br />I thought this was what the "pleiotropic-benefits-of-statins" controversy was all about!LA_Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09775262019154051166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-79323314910597065182017-03-27T18:12:28.380+00:002017-03-27T18:12:28.380+00:00Bob, I don't follow the markets at all, I gues...Bob, I don't follow the markets at all, I guess it shows!!<br /><br />My biggest worry is that one day a lipid lowering drug will be developed which will have some off target beneficial effect which will be mis-applied to the cholesterol lowering effect. Personally, I doubt this ever happened with the statins and the minuscule benefits they show are 100% due to funding sources combined with torturing the data.<br /><br />PeterPeterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14527788116058656094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-75356351852901848552017-03-27T00:01:22.081+00:002017-03-27T00:01:22.081+00:00Dear Peter, retired veterinarian-turned-financial-...Dear Peter, retired veterinarian-turned-financial-analyst:<br /><br />As someone who follows some of the financial markets for my future retirement health, I'm always reluctant to ascribe stock price movements to specific events. Markets may be less complicated than physiology, but they are still sufficiently complicated to defy rational analysis, and there are those who believe they are manipulated much as expensive drug trials might be.<br /><br />Of course, whatever Repatha's faults in efficacy, it suffers from the back-breaking burden of <i>witheringly</i> high cost. For us cholesterol skeptics ("deniers"?), this is surely a good thing.<br /><br />Here is an article on a financial website called Seeking Alpha from a retired cardiologist-turned-financial-analyst. He is careful with his words but seems sympathetic to the cholesterol hypothesis in general and Repatha in particular. Some of the many comments to the article are not so kind.<br /><br />https://seekingalpha.com/article/4056177-amgen-tanks-repatha-data-analysis<br /><br />Unfortunately, you need to register with the website to read the full article. Fortunately, registration is free.<br /> <br />There is also this Forbes article. The handful of comments include a distinct critic of the cholesterol-lowering craze, and the author himself refers to bearing "torcetrapib scars" (the author worked for Pfizer). Might make interesting light reading.<br /><br />https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnlamattina/2017/03/22/ucsf-cardiologist-is-distrustful-of-amgens-cholesterol-drug-study/#5a94cce83826<br /><br />I understand Amgen paid about $500M for the FOURIER study. Between that and whatever Amgen paid to develop the drug and get it approved, we must be very much in Pfizer territory a la torcetrapib in terms of losses. And people wonder by pharmaceuticals are <i>soooooooooo</i> expensive.<br />LA_Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09775262019154051166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-14204313026781230862017-03-26T23:58:23.809+00:002017-03-26T23:58:23.809+00:00This comment has been removed by the author.LA_Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09775262019154051166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-23058978677715985072017-03-26T23:41:07.540+00:002017-03-26T23:41:07.540+00:00Malcolm Kendrick weighed in on this as well...
h...Malcolm Kendrick weighed in on this as well... <br /><br />https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2017/03/20/cholesterol-lowering-proven-or-not/karlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13490274388549702613noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-10574920509694442712017-03-26T23:39:37.518+00:002017-03-26T23:39:37.518+00:00There were earlier papers that said that evolocuma...There were earlier papers that said that evolocumab lowered Lp(a) and oxLDL:<br /><br />http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109714002812<br /><br />But in this paper :<br /><br />They say nothing about Lp(a) -- have to wonder why?<br /><br />The say nothing about oxLDL -- have to wonder why?<br /><br />This is personal to me - I'm slowly losing ground to CAD and they put me on this. I will have to look at my Lp(a) and oxLDL levels - but probably will just stop it. ( I wonder if insurance will still pay for it after this paper?).karlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13490274388549702613noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-39047476788683506752017-03-25T13:55:02.049+00:002017-03-25T13:55:02.049+00:00Regeneron too -10% in a week, with the significant...Regeneron too -10% in a week, with the significant drop starting on the 17th. Not Sanofi, but there could be complex reasons for that. On the other hand the drops are possibly less marked than one could have expected as profit projections must have changed. (I should note that I have zero expertise in this area.)Ken Strainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17858942560493966406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36840063.post-47218041039725078182017-03-25T10:04:17.832+00:002017-03-25T10:04:17.832+00:00It is an amusing concept, an adverse event for a d...It is an amusing concept, an adverse event for a drug company. (Lots of cheesy jokes to insert here about the statistical significance, relative risk etc :-) )<br /><br /> It reminds of a story I heard about the Victorian Govt.'s method of reducing industrial pollution in the Yarra river: any company using river water had to position their intake some distance downstream of their outlet. Worked really well so I was told. The bottom line became the top line.<br /><br />Who do you think might have been conning whom in that company? Where did the research dollars actually end up?<br /><br /><br />C.Passthecreamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01214860448492630477noreply@blogger.com