Comments for Testing the Test: Diagnostics for the other 90%

Comment on The dangers of (genetic) diagnostic monopolies by naman

naman — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:30:00 +0000

and actually Biotech does tend to take out patents to simply cloud the landscape so other manufacturers remain unsure about potential IP liability regarding work on a similar product. This is especially difficult to tease out for generic manufacturers.

Comment on The dangers of (genetic) diagnostic monopolies by naman

naman — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:36:00 +0000

Good analysis. On some level its interesting as to whether you treat genes as a “product” or as “information” and the IP ramifications either way. Some key bottlenecks with health I think are a) more difficult to distribute costs b) capital costs are higher c) legal and financial risks of product registration. But we’re finding a few better ways to do it, eg. drug development consortiums etc.

Comment on How do you use a tool you don’t know you can trust? Issues with diagnosing latent TB by Pavak

Pavak — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:31:00 +0000

Its possible, although you still won’t be able to find extra-pulmonary latent infections. Radiography is also extremely non-specific as a diagnostic technique. A chest X-ray will certainly find lesions and granuloma, but without microbiological confirmation we have no idea whether the granuloma is indeed caused by mycobateria. Correlating the X-ray detection of granuloma with IFN-γ measurements on serum might help reduce uncertainty in borderline cases. I’m meeting with Dr. Stout this Wednesday and I plan to learn a little more about the problem if we have time after our meeting.

Comment on How do you use a tool you don’t know you can trust? Issues with diagnosing latent TB by naman

naman — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:41:00 +0000

what about non-serum test like a chest x-ray – don’t patients with latent TB, i.e. will likely have a granuloma, show up most of the time? 1 problem may be the CXR won’t look different after cure as the inflammatory changes are now scars. Granted, shooting people with radiation isn’t a great screening strategy but is their space for innovation in inexpensive imaging? Or could it be possible to hear a granuloma?