This is the non-profit , public service part of the website. Here we share some of the insights drawn from BOLT’s Thought Leader panels that we think will be of interest to patients and community physicians. In addition we’re seeing a lot of traffic from pharma, biotech, government/regulatory, investors, and even our competitors (hi out there!).
All are welcome. Remember three things, please:
1) We do NOT offer medical advice on this site. We don’t know you, we’re not licensed to treat you, and so on and so forth. If something we say catches your interest, and may be helpful to your treatment, share the blog with your physician and you guys decide what’s best for you.
2) We’re not trying to give you the whole story here. So be careful of the context. We charge pharma and investors a boatload of money for BOLT International’s proprietary consulting, and for our reports (go to the “buy now” link on the BOLT Home Page or email us for a list of reports that we haven’t yet posted). In this blog we’re trying to inform, entertain and facilitate the transfer of some very upstream technologies to patients and physicians all over the world who might not otherwise have access to international experts in their diseases. Now, if you’re one of THOSE peeps, email me and I’ll see what I can give you for free. But if you’re Pharma, Biotech, Government, Investor, or Competitor, buck up chum… Go to the for-pay side of the site!
3) If you use any material that you get from this site, CREDIT US!!! It’s the legal, and the classy thing to do. And frankly, think how stupid you’re gonna feel if you rip us off, give our stuff to a client, and they say to you “Did you steal that from BOLT, or did BOLT steal that from you? Cuz one of you is trying to pawn off somebody else’s work” (Yes, this actually happened to us).
Hematology / Oncology Thought Leader Panel #29 Multiple Myeloma 2012-01 So before we talk about multiple myeloma, I want to introduce you to my most recent addiction. Oops, I mean addition. She doesn’t have a name, but she is definitely … Continue reading
I haven’t been blogging very much lately. I don’t personally have inflammatory bowel disease (I know, TMI), but with the way I’ve been eating this Christmas, I’m able to mimic at least temporarily many of the symptoms (I know, REALLY … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Been a while, kids. Lots of meeting, including AACR/EORTC in the Peeps Democratic Republic of Kalifornia, San Francisco, and then ASH in ditto ditto ditto, San Diego. The Dark Side owns all that … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Desert Man Haiku: Obama dearest, What’s best way to wipe my ass? Can you show me how? Desert Man Toilet Paper Melanoma Patient Support: I get a ton of … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; As I pen this blog, it is 85 degrees (Fahrenheit, for you poor 3rd-worlders condemned to the metric system) and dry as a bone in Scottsdale, AZ. As an aside, I once had a … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International So I don’t post as often as I’d like. Read between the lines… Interloper Haiku: The Lord’s great “GRACE” test. I’m a guest in my own home. Will they EVER … Continue reading
Posted by Melanie Bowen via Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Stylized representation of some sort of nutritious food. p.s. Sorry Melanie. If you thought you were going to get posted WITHOUT a sarcastic intro… Not Today! So I … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International If only it was this easy to trade in the ASBMR. Every ASBMR I switch off buying dinner with one of BOLT’s Osteoporosis Thought Leaders. It’s a tradition that’s … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Here’s some irony for you. If you live in Arizona and want to buy a nice machine gun, you have to wait about 4 months for ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms; the Arizona … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Las Vegas Haiku: Vegas, How it works – Either you’re in on the joke, or you are the joke. I’m going to apologize ahead of … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International In the interest of investigative reporting, I snuck into the Women’s restroom in one of the trendy Snottsdale bars last night, just to get a handle on any differences in what a woman … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International A few clients took advantage of my offer to pre-buy BOLT’s upcoming Lung Cancer Landscape. Early sales are always nice, and with the proceeds… well let’s just say that I’m GIDDY over the new … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Boy oh boy! One of the fundamental tenets of quantum physics was demonstrated this week. I am just stunned, but IT’S TRUE: FDA approved Zelboraf (vemurafenib) for the treatment of BRAF V600E mutation-positive, inoperable … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International Oops Haiku: Stoned in parent’s car… Drops joint, OH SHIT IT’S ON FIRE… Pretty orange sky. Arizona’s State Weed So we finally straightened … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Now that I write a blog I get a lot more emails than ever before. My favorites are from patients who we either connected to some of BOLT’s thought leaders for treatment, or … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International First a piece of serious business. Well, mostly serious. Matt Anderson introduced me to David Cook’s book and website, Golf’s Sacred Journey a.k.a. Links of Utopia. I suck at golf. I like it. … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International First, a note on yesterday’s blog. Yes, I really did spot smoke coming from the engine of that boat. We SCREAMED at this father to throw his life-vested baby girl, plus older … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Dateline: Sandpoint Idaho, July 23 2011. I guess I’ll take the 5th on the beer-stealing boondoggle. But we really did fish four souls out while this sob was going up in flames. Now I … Continue reading
Thanks to Monica Lewinsky’s boy-toy, we can now say with confidence that the meaning of the word(s) “bleeding definitions” depends on what the meaning of the word(s) ‘bleeding definitions’ is. Sound complicated? I feel your pain. If you ask Michelle’s … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Typical mooring at the Scottsdale Yacht Club. Pregabalin Haiku: I take Lyrica* It’s a party in a pill Friends inside my head * (This is a Haiku. … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Item #1: Re: Joey Chestnut (and this is not my quote and I don’t know the source), “He’s ingested more bad meat than Boy George”. The man is simply untouchable. Five consecutive championships. But … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Today’s Photo: Scottsdale Municipal Landfill. Today’s Temperature: “Dry Heat” Today’s Haiku: Woman’s face tightens. Releases horrific gas. Checkout line faux pas. Okay, before you send me an … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; The cave dwellers of the land that we now know as England had rather unsophisticated lingual skills. Short guttural sounds were used to convey long, complex meanings. One of these sounds, “nan” meant … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International I’m in a foul mood tonight. Just pissy. This lil’ feller with eight hairy legs sums up what I look like right now. I’d tell you why, but the BOLT Pharma Blog isn’t … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Good evening, peepers and peepses. Hope everybody had a great weekend. So tonight I want to talk tangentially about forecasting, and i (eventually, once I’m done rambling) want to do it by … Continue reading
So before I share some thoughts on how to develop a c-MET inhibitor for non-small cell lung cancer, I can’t resist commenting on the executive order, issued today by Darryl (I was in Run-D.M.C. before I was a community organizer) … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I’m purposely NOT loading lots of Google search terms into this blog, so ONLY my dedicated readers are going to find it and get some free advice. Not necessarily GOOD advice, but since … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I’m sitting on a Southwest flight to Chicago. I was going to rant about TSA before getting on to the psoriasis portion of this blog. But since good sarcasm only attacks those … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; So I survived my blog last night with no sarcasm, and I’m happy to report that I’m none the worse for wear. We’re all headed to Chicago for the next week. For ASCO, … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; When I published my last blog I sort of hinted at getting through a single one without sarcasm. This, folks, is the one! So before we talk about melanoma, I have a public … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Of the three great mysteries in the news this week, I sort of expect to have data on two of these in my lifetime. And as for Mr. California Preacher (no, silly, not … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International: Two more weeks and we’ll be in the midst of another ASCO fiasco. This year I’m going to be prepared. I’ll bring my own pens and a notebook (okay, not really. Thanks Steve … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; For one blog, I’m going to be completely serious and free of sarcasm. This isn’t that blog. Just so you know. So let’s get started… This is Opuntia bigelovii, better known as “Teddy … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; This is the time of year where we really can’t understand why they pay the local Phoenix TV weathermen. I mean, “meteorologists”. Seriously, though, how hard is it to predict “100 and sunny” … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; My next meeting is going to be ASCO. Can I tell you, I’m so beyond thrilled to be getting to go to another meeting in Chicago. Maybe this time my hotel room will … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Have you been missing your cactus photo? Here ya go. Blogging today from Charles de Gaulle. Here’s a shout out to Guilhem Bousquet. Nicest Frenchman I know. Pretty good oncologist to boot. … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Another beautiful day in Paris. Unfortunately, all I got to see of it was the basement under the Louvre. Fortunately, Big Daddy is paying for me to be here at the International Myeloma … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I spent the day yesterday writing blogs. Just kidding. It was too nice of a day in Paris to do anything other than skate the city. So I zipped to-and-fro for 6 hours. Until … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I’m sitting in the British Airways lounge at Sky Harbor airport. My flight’s delayed by 30 minutes because some inbred British guy wanted to make an honest woman out of some chick I … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; First some business: We had our 10,000th hit on the blog. YAY! Somebody in Princeton, NJ, at Biovid. So there. You be our 10,000th, and u get a free plug. New Jersey. What … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I’m leaving for Paris in a couple of days, 13th International Myeloma Workshop. And for that, I’m psyched. I’m really looking forward to seeing a number of BOLT’s Myeloma Thought Leaders; some for … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International In follow up to the questioner regarding what BOLT’s Infectious Disease Thought Leader panel thinks about warehousing hepatitis C patients vs. treating them today, we asked that very question a couple months back. So … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Here’s your cactus flower of the day; cereus aethiops. One of the “queen of the night” cacti, named because the flowers bloom at night and wither by mid morning. Thus, the best … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; They say that once you put it on the web, it’s there FOREVER. So tonight I’m going to post this photo of an echinopsis LA (who came up with that name?) and… some … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; So I’m flying back from some meeting and I’m too brain dead to even fire up my IPad. As is my custom, i peer between the seats and watch whatever the stranger sitting … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International I got ten emails overnight, basically all saying “post more stuff related to the upcoming DDW meeting”. The second highest request was eight emails. For 2nd place, you get these pretty purple flowers. … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International This is an echinopsis hybrid. They’re easy to crossbreed and sometimes they even have pretty color to them. I hear that the Ohio valley had poopy weather today. Nya Nya na na … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; So my GF thinks that the only reason I write this blog is to make you, dear reader, look at my cactus photos. For today, and only for today, I’ll stipulate that this … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Why no blogs for the past few days? Well, I’ll tell ya. I got this new pair of inline skates, and they’ve needed some feet in them to break ‘em in. OMG These things … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I like martinis. A lot. Vodka. Straight up. Blue cheese stuffed olives. A little spritz of vermouth. When I was younger we’d throw some sodium metal into a still of reagent grade ethanol … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Short and sweet today… ALLEGRO results were presented at AAN. Laquinimod produced a 23% lower relapse rate vs placebo in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. While “statistically significant”, this result is a yawner (in … Continue reading
Today saw two positive votes for new therapies for the treatment of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors from FDA’s ODAC. Novartis’s Afinitor (everolimus) got the thumbs up by a 10-0 score. Pfizer’s Sutent (sunitinib) “eeked out” an 8-2 win. The ODAC approval … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International Okay, maybe not quite yet breakfast food for Alzheimer’s disease when added to Aricept (donepezil). But here’s my prediction: CONCERT will publish 1Q2012 and then we should officially be ready to butter dimebon … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Tonight, I’m going to blog about Prolia/Xgeva (denosumab). So here goes… I’m a Mac guy. Why? THEY JUST WORK. I wrote my thesis up on a funky little box in the ‘80’s. I still … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I have one more day in the dog kennel (a.k.a. AACR 2011; Orlando) before heading back to my beloved desert. It’s been a great meeting and I SHOULD be blogging about cancer. But… the … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I’m spending the week at AACR 2011, in Orlando. If you’re here, give me a shout! I really like this meeting. Not quite as crazy as ASCO, and less pompous than ASH. There have … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International: In many categories, (rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, osteoporosis just to make the point) payers have passed the tipping point, and now they can drive prescribing based on whether parenteral dosing requires an infusion. Gastroenterology … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I got a question by email from a blog reader wanting to know what BOLT’s Diabetes Thought Leader panel thinks of Ondero (linagliptin). So, short and sweet — the following is some insight from … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I have melanoma on the brain this week. Yervoy (ipilimumab; Bristol-Myers Squibb) was approved, and I shared earlier in the week some of the thoughts on that drug which I took from BOLT’s Melanoma … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; I got an email today asking when i was going to shut up about the Arizona weather. I will when the sky stops looking like this: This notocactus bloomed … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; A couple of weeks back Pfizer recalled one of the key products that came their way via the acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals. Some lots of Embeda, an extended release “abuse resistant painkiller” did not … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Just to rub it in… The air temp in AZ is 90, and the pool temp is 93. There is one cloud. It’s East of us. Could be over New Mexico. Anyway… Presumably, you’re … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; Merck announced today that they have returned to Portola all rights to betrixaban. BOLT spoke with our SPAF (prevention of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation) Thought Leaders last month and asked them to … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; On March 9, 2011 indacaterol 75 mcg received a positive review (13-4) from FDA’s Pulmonary-Allergy Advisory Committee for use as a once-daily long-term maintenance bronchodilator treatment of airflow obstruction in patients with chronic obstructive … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; We survived our raindrops. But golly, how do the rest of you cope with the clouds and mud and stuff? On the bright side, we did get our first flowers of the spring to … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk, BOLT International; It’s so cold and rainy here in the desert today we might as well be living in New Jersey. Anyway… One of our Pharma friends asked about diagnostics. Big topic, and we ask every … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Here in Arizona the scorpions are out. While that can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, to us it means that it’s not too soon to be thinking about ASCO … Continue reading
Posted by Jeff Berk; BOLT International Today FDA refused to approve Amyvid™ for the detection of beta-amyloid plaque in the brains of living patients. The complete response was primarily focused on the need to establish a reader training program … Continue reading
FDA will review two NS3/4A protease inhibitors, Merck’s boceprevir on April 27 and Vertex’s telaprevir on April 28. Both drugs have shown success in increasing hepatitis C cure rates when added to pegylated interferon and ribavirin. A couple of months … Continue reading
Today Boehringer-Ingelheim’s Pradaxa (dabigatran) achieved preferred Tier 2 formulary status with pharmacy benefit managers Medco Health Solutions and CVS Caremark. CVS Caremark and Medco added Pradaxa to their commercial preferred drug lists, and Medco added the drug to its Part … Continue reading
Some of our Thought leaders participated in a workshop recently, where the value of developing chemokine receptor antagonists for rheumatoid arthritis was one of the topics of conversation. The overwhelming consensus of that working group was that the evidence doesn’t … Continue reading
We asked our Thought Leaders to compare BRAF inhibitors from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK-2118436) and Roche ( RO5185426 aka PLX-4032 aka RG-7204) in relation to efficacy on melanoma with brain metastases. The key claim for an efficacy advantage for GSK2118436 will be … Continue reading
This week FDA gave their complete response to Merck-Serono’s Movectro (oral cladribine) registration application for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis. The Agency is requiring more safety data, calling for additional analyses or new studies. Cladribine was recently approved in Russia and … Continue reading