Lessons from Facebook

By now we all have heard about FB's "disastrous" IPO,with the stock price sinking more than 15% since it opened last Friday. Financially, in the short term, FB and its existing investors came out quite nicely in the deal, however. They were able to get 15% more when they sold their stock than what those who purchased it from them can now get for the same item. This is akin to the "Buy low, sell high" mantra of making money, and we all know that works quite well. In the long run, however, FB and the other sellers of FB stock that still retain ownership may end up wishing they had not made so much money off of those who purchased from them last Friday. The very public black eye for the very public company may do far more damage over the long haul than was made on that one day. This will be quite interesting to watch...

Crowdsourcing Drug Development

Crowdsourcing has proven highly effective in bringing many minds to bear on a range of problem to be solved, though often for issues as simple as a logo design. That power of course can be brought to bear on problems far more complex. The National Institutes of Health, following the lead of a program begun in Great Britain, will begin on October 1 providing grants to researchers to allow them to attempt to find new uses for drugs abandoned as ineffective for their original intent by companies such as Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca. History has shown that some drugs found ineffective for treating the ailment originally targeted can be highly effective against other conditions. The drug AZT is one such drug, originally designed for cancer but now used against AIDS. NIH is making $20 million available in grants for researching new uses for about 20 drugs initially, but hopes to expand the program. Persons conducting this research will have the benefit of millions of dollars already expended by the major companies to determine, for instance, safe dosage levels. Sounds like a win-win-win to me. The program is being run by NIH's new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

FDA Unique Device Identifier

Those of you developing a medical device should, if you have not already, familiarize yourself with the FDA's new "Unique Device Identifier" (UDI) identification number and barcode system for medical devices. The purpose is to enable the FDA to search databases of statistics from hospitals, insurance companies, etc. on failure rates and other problems with medical devices. The FDA's website has more information, including several slide presentations and notice of a public seminar on UDI to be held in Bethesda, MD on September 12th and 13th.