The month of April included a stretch of three conferences in 11 days: PDA, BIO and INTERPHEX (sorry, Partnerships in Clinical Trials, maybe next year!). It was a busy run, with lots of scheduled interviews and serendipitous conversations, but I’m hoping the conference schedules are a little more spread out in coming years; it doesn’t do anyone any favors to have to cover multiple overlapping shows or split teams to accommodate them. Still, all three events proved worthwhile (as you’ll see in the months ahead).
For the record, my non-event highlights included:

• TSA leaving the baggage X-ray machine unstaffed while my publisher and I went through, the morning after the Boston Marathon bombings.
• My first visit to the Art Institute in Chicago, on my 800th or trip to the city. Wow. Go there.
• Finding a quiet, peaceful hotel in New York City.

After my travels, I came home to find a New York Times article with the headline, Doctors Denounce Cancer Drug Prices of $100,000 a Year (nyti.ms/11YhoWF). I took a deep breath before diving in, afraid that this would be another “drug companies should only charge the price of manufacturing” article. It’s a bit more nuanced than that, although it does include a doctor questioning how much profit Novartis should be allowed to make from Gleevec; he doesn’t seem to be concerned with the question of how much money doctors, hospitals or oncology clinics should be allowed to make, but maybe that part got edited out.

The article covers a protest by oncology doctors focused on chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treatments like Gleevec, about which . . . well, here’s a quote:
“It is a little surprising that their focus is in a cancer where the small-molecule medicines have had the greatest impact on long-term benefit,” said Dr. Harvey J. Berger, chief executive of Ariad Pharmaceu-ticals, which sells the newest and most expensive of the leukemia drugs, Iclusig. [According to Novartis, the development of Gleevec and other CML drugs has improved the five-year survival rate for patients with that cancer from 30% to 90%.]

A few days later, the NYT’s editorial board weighed in on the matter (nyti.ms/YpfnEs), and that was much more predictable, since they’re not doctors, scientists or pharma executives (disclaimer: neither am I). The board decried colorectal cancer treatment Zaltrap as “outrageously overpriced” and no more efficacious than a Avastin at half the price, and anyway, “Neither [drug] did much to extend a patient’s life.”

From there, the NYT board returned to CML and conceded that these new treatments are great advances, but argued that “the companies could settle for lower-but-still-substantial profits.” This is from the company that has more than quadrupled the price of its core product — local newsstand price of daily NYT: $2.50, up from 60 cents — since 1999.

As we’ve all discussed ad nauseam, drug pricing is utterly out of whack — as are most other healthcare costs — because of lack of transparency, inequality among payers, and many other reasons. But complaining that we shouldn’t pony up because 1.4 months isn’t much of an extension of life? Is that really fit to print?

What I’m Reading Pharma Lilly And Sanofi CEOs Take Two Very Different R&D Paths In Alzheimer's Disease John LaMattina, Forbes blog onforb.es/YoYpG9 Comment: Former R&D head for Pfizer and occasional Contract Pharma contributor and contrasts Sanofi’s decision to get out of Alzheimer’s Disease research with Lilly’s move to double-down on research in that field. It’s an interesting take on how to justify R&D expenditures in areas where disease pathology isn’t clear, but the need for treatment is growing rapidly. Non-Pharma The Other Side of the Tiber: Reflections on Time in Italy Wallis Wilde-Menozzi • amzn.to/120Akme Comment: An American poet who has lived in Italy for most of the past 40 years offers this memoir — really a series of essays and remembrances, in beautiful, lyrical prose — about her adopted country. It’s a gorgeous book, and it’ll leave you longing to visit Il Belpaese. Kings of the Roma Jesse Newman, New York Times • nyti.ms/17fFkYv Comment: A photo-essay about the llifestyle of wealthy Roma (gypsies) near my dad’s hometown of Bucharest. Words fail me. Go check it out. Why don’t you tell us what you’re reading? Write us at groth@rodmanmedia.com, www.goodreads.com/groth, www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1775433 or www.facebook.com/contractpharma — and the first respondent wins a prize!