• Health 2.0 - Social Networks (Site Boat)
• Do You Do Health 2.0? (NPA)
• Health 2.0’s impact on the digital divide (The Health Care Blog)
• Why Use a PHR (The Medical Quack)

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The Type 2 diabetes drug Januvia has become a source of controversy after the drug’s maker, Merck, funded a letter to doctors by CVS Caremark, the pharmacy benefits manager, urging the physicians to add the drug to specific patients’ treatment regimens.

Januvia costs as much as 10 times the price of older diabetes drugs such as metformin and glipizide. (Note: Januvia purchased from a Canadian pharmacy costs about half as much as from a U.S. pharmacy — though it is still significantly more expensive than metformin and glipizide.)

Beyond the apparent conflict of interest in CVS Caremark’s letter, the question most important to patients is whether Januvia’s superiority over older, cheaper diabetes drugs makes it worth the additional cost.

The answer is, it depends.

Amy at Diabetes Mine points out that Merck has been pushing the drug very hard, and that while it appears to be effective, there are also concerns about safety and side effects.

If you have Type 2 diabetes and are considering Januvia, or your doctor has already recommended it to you, make sure to discuss the pros and cons thoroughly — and don’t be afraid to remind your doctor of Januvia’s additional cost. Physicians often forget to factor cost into their decisions on which drugs to prescribe, so it’s important to speak up.

And if you do end up taking Januvia, be sure to ask for free samples whenever you visit your doctor.

• The (not-so-)Beautiful (un)Truth: The “alternative” medicine movement gets an Expelled! to call its very own (Respectful Insolence)
• Putting flu virus on the no fly list? (Effect Measure)
• Do you remember your defense? (Terra Sigillata)
• Why You Weigh Less in the Morning (TBTAM)

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PharmacyChecker.com is the leading verification authority for online pharmacies in the United States and Canada. Google requires all pharmacies in its ad network to receive PharmacyChecker verification, and eDrugSearch.com requires all member pharmacies to have PharmacyChecker verification as well.

PharmacyChecker has just produced a free five-page pdf report called “Safe Strategies for Drug Savings.” It offers the following five strategies:

1. Check brand name prices at Canadian and non-U.S. online pharmacies.
2. Check brand name prices at U.S. online and wholesale pharmacies.
3. Check discount generic programs at large retailers and pharmacies.
4. Check wholesale pharmacy prices on generics.
5. Check programs based on need or fees.

By doing your homework, PharmacyChecker concludes, you can save more than 70 percent on brand name drugs and close to that on generic drugs.

Download the report here.

John Mack of Pharma Marketing News is asking who should be the next FDA commish. His survey walks you through some of the top contenders, including:

• Robert Califf, vice chancellor for clinical research and professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at Duke.
• Dora Hughes, Health Policy Advisor to Senator Barack Obama.
• David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner.
• Steve Nissen, cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic.
• Mary Pendergast, industry consultant who was a former associate FDA Commissioner under David Kessler.
• Peter Rost, former Pfizer VP of Marketing, now a blogger.
• Joshua Sharfstein, commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department.
• Mike Taylor, former Deputy FDA Commissioner under Clinton
• Susan Wood, the former head of women’s health at FDA, who resigned in protest after the delay in switching the morning-after pill over-the-counter.
• Janet Woodcock, Center for Drug Evaluation & Research Director

So what are you waiting for? Vote now!

Yeah, I know: you’ve never heard of “C-reactive protein” (CRP) as an indicator of heart disease, just like you’d never heard of restless leg syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome or a host of other ailments before they were heralded in pharmaceutical company commercials 24-7. But soon, you’ll know all about C-reactive protein — and why if your CRP levels are high, you need to take Crestor.

Crestor is a statin prescribed to people with high cholesterol levels. But now a new study (funded by the maker of Crestor) says the drug is also therapeutic for patients whose cholesterol isn’t high, but who have high levels of C-reactive protein, which indicates inflammation in the body. The study says Crestor can reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by half among individuals with this indicator.

Doctors and other experts have two concerns about the study: (1) it was funded by AstraZeneca, Crestor’s manufacturer, and (2) it could dramatically increase the number of patients who are prescribed Crestor, increasing U.S. healthcare costs by as much at $10 billion per year.

Here’s our advice: wait for more studies.

In the meantime, you should educate yourself about CRP with this information from the American Heart Association.

• Big Pharma Is Not Your Friend (Know Thy Health)
• Who Killed Big Pharma? (Cato at Liberty)
• Big Pharma using Disney icons to sell antipsychotic drug… (Blendz Spot)
• I’m so confused?!? I thought we had a mission… (Bustin’ Big Pharma)

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We’ve been working so hard and running so fast at eDrugSearch.com that I failed to notice when we dashed right past a major milestone last week. On November 6, the eDrugSearch Blog reached its second anniversary.

It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience for us; we’ve met a lot of great people and made a lot of good friends. We hope along the way that we’ve shed an informative light on the world of online pharmacies — helping you to distinguish good pharmacies from bad ones so you won’t be scammed (or worse) by a rogue operation.

We also hope we’ve helped you to understand the political backdrop behind some of the confusing and contradictory behaviors of the U.S. government when it comes to Canadian pharmacies. And finally, we hope we’ve provided you with practical advice that has helped you to save money on your own drug purchases.

Thanks for making this an unforgettable experience for us. As for the future: We’ll keep writing as long as you keep reading!

• Health 2.0 Conference Twitter Stream (Joseph A. Cerro)
• Health 2.0 Conference Interview with Andre Blackman (Pulse & Signal)
• Number of US Health 2.0 Consumers Now at 60 Million (RWW)
• Lessons from the pulpit: My MBS2 summit experience and E-health 2.0 (The Orthopedic Logbook)

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We’ve written a lot here about the dangers of taking drugs without a prescription, of doctor shopping, of accidental overdoses and unanticipated drug interactions, and of forgoing needed medications to save money. But one thing we haven’t written about is medication non-adherence — the problem of people simply forgetting to take their meds.

It’s a more widespread, and serious, issue than you might have imagined. According to Intelecare, one out of every two patients fails to follow physician instructions. When patients are asked why, 84 percent cite forgetfulness as the main reason for their non-adherence.

And check out these numbers:

• 1 out of 8 heart attack patients stops taking life-saving drugs after just 1 month
• 31 percent of all prescriptions are not filled the first time
• 15 percent of all hospital visits ($47 billion/annually) are due to medication non-adherence
• 125,000 deaths annually are the result of non-adherence
• Up to 60 percent of patients cannot correctly report what their physicians expected of them 10 to 80 minutes after they were provided with the information
• Non-adherence costs the healthcare system over $300 billion annually

Intelecare offers a personal reminder service that helps ensure healthcare consumers take their medications as prescribed. The service has more than three million subscribers.

If you have problems remembering to take your meds, or you’re a caregiver of someone who forgets to take their meds, Intelecare may be the solution for you. You can learn more here.