Drug giant kisses assets

This just in: One of the major pharmaceuticals manufacturers, GlaxoSmithKline PLC, has publicly announced their intention to post results from all of its drug trials on the Web...

They just didn't say WHEN.

According to a recent Associated Press report, the drug giant capitulated (sort of) in response to pressure from both the normally slow-as-a-glacier American Medical Association and some big- name medical journals - which were considering refusing to print drug-company studies without full public access to them (bravo!). Oh, and the HUGE FRAUD LAWSUIT recently filed against Glaxo by New York's Attorney General might have had a little something to do with it as well (just a guess, though).

Conspicuously missing from the list of protagonists that brought the drug-maker to heel: The good ol' FDA. What a surprise! I guess they're too busy drafting laws WITHOUT PENALTIES to assist their bread-and-butter revenue-givers.

Predictably, Glaxo claims the timing behind the announcement has nothing to do with the Big Apple's lawsuit (which was filed two weeks prior), but rather in response to the AMA's new resolution calling for a government-sponsored online resource posting ALL drug trials from all sources...

Hey, wait a minute - didn't we just talk about that in the last Daily Dose? Yep. That's the FDA's anemic web site that's been up and running since 2000, but that less than half of the industry- sponsored drug studies have been posted on. Apparently, the AMA either doesn't know about the site (possible) or sees it for what it is: A hopelessly incomplete and very likely misleading resource that helps neither doctors nor patients, only drug companies. I guess passing a resolution demanding it is their way of putting pressure on the FDA. Yeah, good luck with that, guys.

For all their feel-good, big-biz-with-a-conscience rhetoric, I see Glaxo's move as nothing more than PR damage control. Look at it: They've already been publicly nailed with the whole antidepressant/teen suicide fiasco (the basis for the New York lawsuit), so why shouldn't they try to take the lead in the industry when it comes to disclosure? At this point, they have nothing to lose. It's like what Exxon did after the Valdez disaster.

If only they'd pay some real, unbiased doctors to test their drugs as much as they pay the "spin doctors" to clean up the havoc their poisons wreak on us (and the FDA to look the other way), then maybe we'd have something...

As for their "full public disclosure" online, I'll believe it when I see it.

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 Java junkies of the world, rejoice!

In yet another bit of encouraging news about one of our favorite beverages, the findings of a recent research study reveal that drinking coffee (more specifically, drinking beverages with caffeine in them) may help protect people from liver disease - whether alcohol related or otherwise.

Yeah, big news - I've only been saying this for a decade or so!

Unveiled during this past May's Digestive Disease Week (now there's a shindig not to miss next year, huh? Hope it doesn't conflict with Derby Week), the study indicates that folks who consumed more than two cups a day of coffee or other heavily caffeinated beverages were between 44% and 69% less likely to show evidence of liver disease than a similar group of non-caffeine drinkers.

Of course, the National Institute of Health hemmed and hawed about how we shouldn't jump to conclusion about caffeine's benefits, instead calling for "further research," according to Reuters.

Though the study's authors were unable to pinpoint the exact mechanism by which caffeine protected the liver, prior research has shown that one of caffeine's main effects on the body is blocking cell structures called adenosine receptors. Blocking these sites causes a boost in immune response, which could explain the extra protection for at-risk livers.

Liver disease or not, though, caffeine in sensible amounts (like what's in two or three cups of coffee) can do both your body and soul nothing but good in the opinion of this healthy-as-a-horse old Java lover. Drink up!

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