Was that Big Pharma sighing relief or did the wind pick up a bit?

Back in January the European Commission began investigating potentially anticompetitive behavior by raiding the European corporate offices of every player in the space from Astra to Zeneca.

There followed months of extensive investigations and more raids all of which culminated in the release of a report last Friday.

The 400 page document detailed unseemly practices and suggested they might have cost European health care systems $4 billion between 2000 and 2007.

It was accompanied by threats to take down the first company that crosses any lines, but no criminal charges were filed.

In fact no company was accused of anything.

The report decried the way Big Pharma creates legal minefields for generic competitors by filing hundreds of ridiculous patents for its drugs, lobbing frivolous lawsuits in their path, and even paying-off the generics makers to shelve their products.

“These practices delay generic entry and lead to health care systems and consumers paying more than they would otherwise have done for medicines,” noted the Commission.

But the best line of the day belonged to Bayer’s CEO Arthur Higgins, who scoffed “there is nothing in this report that is unlawful.”

Well maybe not. But the Commission’s report is only preliminary. It’s got few more months to dig before the final report is released, and it you know it wants to fry some fish.

Physicians that use electronic medical records are less likely to pay out malpractice settlements, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine

Anunta Virapongse and colleagues at Harvard Medical School surveyed a random sample of 1884 Massachusetts physicians to assess EMR utilization and obtained information about paid malpractice claims from the state’s Board of Registration in Medicine Web site.

The scientists found that 6.1% of physicians using an EMR had paid a malpractice claim, whereas 10.8% of those not using an EMR had done so. This difference was significant, but analyses including variables like gender, race, age and practice size diminished the difference. The resulting trend was not significant.

A subgroup analysis revealed that only 5.7% of frequent EMR users had paid malpractice claims, whereas 12.1% of infrequent users had done so. As above, the small sample sizes prevented the trend from achieving significance. The results therefore need to be validated before serving as a basis for policy formulation.

EMRs can reduce malpractice risk by improving follow-up of test results, reducing prescription errors and improving adherence to best practices. The exquisite documentation of care facilitated by EMRs can also help the defense in a malpractice case.
 
If these trends are confirmed, malpractice insurers could conceivably lower premiums for groups that adopt EMRs, an additional incentive to invest in the expensive systems.

Atlas Sports Genetics claims to have a test that predicts which kinds of sports match your child’s innate abilities. You can buy it right now for $149.

The test determines ACTN3 gene expression. ACTN3 is one of 20,000 human genes.

The so-called R variant of ACTN3 instructs the body to produce alpha-actinin-3. This protein component of fast-twitch muscles provides forceful, quick contractions required to excel in power and speed sports like football and sprinting. The X variant suppresses the production of alpha-actinin-3.

Children inherit one copy of the ACTN3 gene from each parent, so they can be “RR,” “RX,” or “XX.”

Atlas Sports claims that power and speed sports are best suited to RR offspring, whereas endurance sports like marathons and distance swimming are best suited for XX offspring. Apparently RX offspring can do anything.

If this sounds dicey to you, you’re not alone.

Dr. Theodore Friedmann, the director of the gene therapy program at UCSD for example, told the New York Times the test amounted to “an opportunity to sell new versions of snake oil.” He elaborated, “I don’t deny that these genes have a role in athletic success, but it’s not that black and white.”

There is no doubt the science being commercialized here is compelling, if not ready for prime time.

In 2003, Australian scientists studied 429 world class athletes including 50 Olympians. They found that 50% of the 107 sprint athletes were RR. That’s twice the frequency of RR in the general population. And not one female sprinter was XX. What is more, every male Olympian involved in power sports had inherited an R variant from at least one parent.

So where does the XX Spanish long jumper fit in?

It’s hard to know but Carl Foster, a co-author of the study and director of the human performance laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse has devised another way to see whether your 6th grader will excel at power and sprint sports:

“Just line them up with their classmates for a race and see which ones are the fastest,” he said.