While Michael Milken and the Prostate Cancer Foundation are whooping it up at the ballgame, some men are sneaking off to have their testicles removed in hopes that it will stop their PSA from rising, and their lives from ending prematurely from late stage prostate cancer. 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes. Over 30,000 American men will die from prostate cancer this year. Only 1 very toxic drug has been approved for late stage pc in over 42 years.

Along came Dendreon’s Provenge, an Immunotherapy voted overwhelmingly safe and effective by the FDA’s panel of experts convened to review Provenge. Was there foul play afoot when the FDA decided to delay approval. Perhaps if our men put some extra pine tar on their bats, we could get some coverage of this story. You would think that the deaths of 15,000 men since the delay would be enough.

Note the Picture on the bottom — David Solit, Tommy Lasorda, Dr. Howard Soule, Dr. Howard Scher and Mike Milken join together in support of the PCF’s Home Run Challenge at the New York Mets vs. Anaheim Angels game on June 10th, 2005 (click link)

Why hasn’t Michael Milken and his Prostate Cancer Foundation stepped up to the plate and publicly voiced his disappointment and disapproval of the decision by the FDA to delay Provenge? Is Milken financially conflicted? The whole thing is permeating a stench in the world of financially conflicted advocacy groups.

We already know Milken was heavily invested in Proquest Investments and touted the fund at its outset, an investment fund initially focused on investments in the lucrative prostate cancer arena. Proquest Investments was founded by Jay Moorin (of Genaera formerly magainin of frogskin oil fame), who recently, along with Jim Blair of Domain Associates also a Board of Director of the Prostate Cancer Foundation hastily resigned from the Novacea board of directors. The very same Proquest Investments that Dr. Howard Scher, one of the naysayers of Provenge that had trouble sleeping if this immunotherapy was approved, and one of the writers of the 3 “Leaked” Letters that derailed Provenge, is low and behold, a scientific advisor for Proquest Investments and also was the chair of the Asentar trials, a competing prostate cancer treatment by Novacea, that was recently suspended due to deaths caused by toxicity of the treatment, but not before they secured a $450 million dollar partnership, with some investors reaping windfall profits as they sold out prior to the suspension.

Proquest Links
May-01-2000 Start-Up Proquest Investments LP Proquest Investments is a $100 million oncology-focused investment fund, partnered by Jeremy Goldberg and Jay Moorin. The firm aims to leverage its specialization and focus to create a brand that will make it the preferred VC firm for Internet, device, biotech and pharmaceutical companies with products that advance the treatment and cure of cancer, its founders hope.

Nov-01-1998 Start-Up 1 The Opportunity in Cancer: Goldberg’s Variation Prostate cancer will be the focus of ProQuest Investments LP, a new venture fund founded by Jeremy Goldberg. With investors the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Foundation of Chicago, Alza Corp., and high net worth individuals, including Michael Milken, ProQuest has raised $40.5 million in its first closing.

Proquest Investment Scientific Advisory board and the Proquest Investment Team has some VERY CLOSE ties to Mike Milken and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.I am told they took down this page but you can find the old page here

Make no mistake about it. The Prostate Cancer Foundation and Proquest’s Investments are so entwined that one would be negligent if one did not raise questions of conflicts of interest.

View the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Board of Directors
View the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Leadership Team.

Here we have the 2006 Prostate Cancer Foundation Annual Report with photos of none other than Dr. Hussain, Dr. Scher (2 of the letter “leakers”) and Dr. Eric Small (we were wondering what happened to him) on page 34.

Michael Milken, Andrew Von Eschenbach and Dr. Richard Pazdur Picture Link

Megabucks from Baseball and not one red cent for Provenge. Actually, financially struggling small biotech company Dendreon has contributed up to $50,000 to the Prostate Cancer Foundation PCF for each of several years, according to the PCF annual reports. Sometimes you have to say, What’s the matter here? Why was Richard Pazdur CC’ed in on the ORIGINAL “Leaked” Letters by Drs. Scher and Hussain. Richard Pazdur, head of ODAC and CDER was not supposed to be involved in the Provenge decision whatsoever, as it was supposed to reside in the CBER divsion of the FDA. Why couldn’t Fleming sleep as he wrote his “Leaked” letter to the FDA telling them it was not his intention to just have them read it, as he cc’ed it to Goodman, Woodcock, Witten, Midthun, and Foulkes? Why didn’t he CC it to Pazdur? Did Pazdur already know? Who helped write his letter? We already know at least Alison Martin was one of the people who helped write Schers “Leaked” letter. Why didn’t anybody CC it to Ashok Batra, the person at the FDA who signed off on the Provenge BLA delay? Why is the Chemo Cartel fighting so hard to stop a safe and effective, non toxic immunotherapy? Stay tuned…the worst is yet to come, as every day as many as 82 more men may die prematurely. Please digg this post and help spread the word for our Ted Girgus, David, Stephen’s father, Bruce, Ray etc including the other 30,000 men, and their wives, families and friends, who are out of options, and quickly losing all hope. Please Help Us.

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Tags: Alison Martin, Andrew Von Eschenbach, Ashok Batra, CBER, CDER, Celia Witten, Chemotherapy, David Solit, FDA, Foulkes, howard i scher, Howard R. Soule PH.d, Howard Soule, Immunotherapy, James Blair, Janet Woodcock, Jim Blair, Jonathan W. Simons, Karen Midthun, Leaked Letters, M.D., Michael Milken, ODAC, PCF, Prostate Cancer, Prostate Cancer Foundation, Richard Pazdur, Stuart Holden, Thomas R Fleming

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 5:55 am and is filed under The Cause. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.