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| 23 August 2011
UK Edition |
 Dear Reader,
Marketing exclusivity.
It's a golden ticket that grants a drug company sole rights to selling a particular drug, barring generic sales. When it comes to pricing said drug, there's no incentive for the company to keep the price low.
Inevitably, greed wins over all of those shiny feel-good mission statements about taking care of people and protecting public health.
They don't always get away with it, though. In July 2009, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave URL Pharma Inc. three years of marketing exclusivity for Colcrys (colchicine), a drug that treats acute gout flares.
Now, this is a single-ingredient drug, and one that's been used for gout since around 550 CE. Previously, it didn't have FDA approval, but many doctors used it off-label. When URL scored their golden ticket, 21 companies were making the drug.
The cost? About four cents per tablet.
But then the FDA put a stop to marketing unapproved (meaning anything that wasn't Colcrys) colchicine.
And suddenly, it was like colchicine was liquid gold. It's now a shocking 125 times more expensive — $5 per tablet.
That's $10 per day for the typical gout patient — and even more when treating flare-ups. Expensive, yes. And profitable, to be sure. We're talking about $11 billion per year for URL Pharma — all on a drug they probably didn't have to do much to "develop."
Well, that didn't sit too well with a few US policy makers and representatives who charged the company with price gouging.
All of this going on — people spending unnecessary money on a drug that is utterly expensive — when one of the very best treatments for gout is actually much cheaper and available on almost every supermarket shelf.
Drinking 32 ounces of cherry juice (hold the sugar, though!) at the first sign of an attack usually eliminates the pain of acute gout. Of course, this food miracle has been hushed up by the FDA. As Dr. Wright wrote in the July 2010 issue of Nutrition & Healing, when Michigan cherry producers tried to share the good news about the powerful healing effects of cherries, the FDA slapped them with warning letters.
And this, of course, is why it's so important to share news like this with your friends and family. Those of us "in the know" have got to spread the word — because goodness knows the powers that be aren't going to do it for us.
Continues below...
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Pre-surgery herbal boost
Q: I am going for surgery in about a month. I take a variety of herbal supplements each day. Should I stop before I go?
Dr. Jonathan V. Wright: My colleague Kerry Bone has some excellent advice on this subject. I'll let him take over on this one:
The basic advice I can give is to stop taking all herbs about one week prior to surgery as a cautious, conservative approach. The exception is milk thistle, which can help offset one of the most debilitating aspects of surgery: the side effects of general anaesthesia.
Based on what I've seen in my own patients, the longer the surgical procedure, and hence the longer they're under general anaesthesia, the more likely it is that they'll experience ill effects. But milk thistle (Silybum marianum) reduces that risk by minimizing the impact of general anaesthesia on the whole body — especially the liver. I recommend starting the herb (in concentrated silymarin extract tablet form) about three weeks prior to surgery. Continue taking it right up to the day before surgery and then pick up right where you left off as soon as possible afterwards.
The dosage amounts depend on the anticipated length of the procedure (and the time you'll be under general anaesthesia). For surgery up to two hours, I recommend 600 mg a day, and you should continue taking it for four weeks after surgery. If the surgery takes between two and four hours, I suggest taking 800 mg a day, and then continuing that dose for six weeks after surgery. And for surgery more than four hours long, I still recommend taking 800 mg a day, but continue that dose each day for two to three months post-surgery.
Keep in mind that milk thistle primarily protects the liver against toxic insult and is very safe. In fact, there's no evidence to suggest that it interacts with drugs by speeding up the rate that the liver metabolizes them, so it won't adversely interact with the anaesthetic drugs.
Bear in mind we are not addressing anyone's personal situation and you should rely on this for informational purposes only. Please consult with your own doctor before acting on any recommendations contained herein.
Wishing you the best of health,
Andrew Miller
UK Editor
Nutrition and Healing
P.S. In the latest issue of Nutrition & Healing, Dr. Wright will tell you how vitamin A can help overcome viral illnesses! Plus you'll learn why your arteries will thank you for taking vitamin K. Dr. Wright will also tell you more about the heart-health benefits of L-carnitine, as well as giving you full details on the powerful nutrient which is fast proving to be prostate cancer's nemesis...
All new members who sign up will receive important updates like these in addition to receiving Dr. Wright's 7 Volume Library of Natural Healing.
Click here for full details.
Sources:
"Outraged Politicians Demand Gout Drug Price Probe," Medscape Today (medscape.com)
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