The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are currently seeking public comment as to whether coverage for Provenge should be provided to Medicare beneficiaries. CareToLive (CTL) asks all of its members and friends to file a public comment. CTL firmly believes coverage should be provided.

You can send your comment by simply clicking this link:    Public Comment

Here is my comment:

Commenter: Kearney, Mike
Title: Spokesperson for CareToLive
Organization: CareToLive, a not for profit corporation advocating for men with prostate cancer
Date: 07/02/2010

Comment:

I would like to respond to the questions Dr. Louis
Jacques, the director of the Coverage and Analysis
Group at the Medicare center, heard from people in
regards to Provenge. Dr. Jacques gave these
questions to Matthew Herper of Forbes Magazine.

“We’ve been getting questions from people,” says
Jacques. “‘Well, what’s up with Provenge? Is it a
drug? Is it a biologic? Is it something else? Does
it really work? It has been interesting to look at
the evidence around it.”

http://blogs.forbes.com/sciencebiz/2010/07/why-medicare-is-reviewing-provenge/?boxes=businesschannelsections

What’s up with Provenge is that it is medical
history. It is a paradigm shift for how we treat
cancer. No, it wouldn’t be considered a drug that
you would pop in your mouth, it is a biologic. In
fact, when it was approved by FDA, it was approved
by the staff of the Center for Biologics
Evaluation & Research (CBER). All the drugs are
approved by the staff of the Center for Drug
Evaluation & Research (CDER). Not sure what the
“Is it something else?” question is referring to.
But perhaps the best question, Dr. Jacques heard
is, “Does it really work?” Let’s look at the
evidence.

Three Phase 3 studies involving 737 patients were
Continue Reading The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are requesting comments. »

Popularity: 83%

DC (Deep Capture) crosses the Country from CA to NY in a land made title wave of corruption and collusion. No collusion of billionaires has ever perpetrated so much evil on the Citizens of the Country. They do it with a smile. Will anyone stop them?

What can you say about a few rich and powerful people who want to stop a company from fighting cancer? How does one get his or her head around such an idea? Cancer touches all of our lives.

When growing up, didn’t we all detest playing with cheaters? They didn’t mind breaking the rules and yet they were the first to search for rules when a play did not go their way. They were repugnant, repulsive people. They had to have things go their way, all the time.

And then these despicable people grew up. They brought their cheatful ways along with them, but then they raised the stakes. They included the almighty dollar. It wasn’t enough for them to win once in a while, it was important to win all the time because money motivated them to no end. They could care less if their dear mother or grandmother died, if it meant they made another buck. That is how grotesque these people are.

Lust is an insatiable condition. It can never be satisfied. The folks we speak of can’t get enough of the money they lust for. They need to get help. It is an addiction that needs to be treated. And once they resort to cheating and gaming the system, they need to go to jail, too.

These people and the darkness that shrouds them which threatens the very core of our being, is discussed in the Dendreon Story as presented by world class journalist, Mark Mitchell. Mark connects the dots and presents the case against these aforementioned heartless cheats who have really lost their way. Go to www.DeepCapture.com and read this amazing 15 Chapter story of how these people wanted to stop medical advancements against cancer, just so they could make a buck or win another game. Referees and rule enforcers couldn’t blow their whistles quick enough, or loud enough, to stop them in their tracks. Do we have anyone out there who can stop them and bring them to justice?

Popularity: 37%

CareToLive Reports Forbes Journalist to the SEC for “Rumor Mongering”

CareToLive, a not for profit corporation, wrote to Steve Forbes and his editors last Tuesday, asking them to investigate Matthew Herper and to consider relieving him of his duties. CareToLive cited Mr. Herper’s one-sided, rumor mongering story, which will appear in the September 15th issue of Forbes magazine. CareToLive presented the real story and tied it in to a Forbes welcoming screen, which displayed the following quote:

“Every being must desire happiness for himself.”

-Richard Price

CareToLive informed Steve Forbes that although Forbe’s use of the above quote is a nice idea, as long as people like Mr. Herper interfere with that desire for happiness, namely the happiness of the 96,000 men desiring a safe, non-toxic treatment for their late stage prostate cancer, it only remains a nice idea.

CareToLive relayed to Mr. Forbes that it should report Matthew Herper to the SEC for rumor mongering, in part because of his use of the word “lousy” when describing the Provenge data. Writing that the data were lousy demonstrated his own bias as the word lousy never appeared in any of the three leaked letters that he was referencing. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said that the new enforcement action for rumor mongering cracks down on rumors that the disseminator knows to be false.

Furthermore, CareToLive informed Mr. Herper prior to the article that CareToLive was just coming into existence at the time of the Chicago rally and was not responsible for organizing it. Regardless, the Chicago rally was completely peaceful, and there were no threats or intimidation leveled from the demonstrators, all of whom conducted themselves in a dignified, professional manner.

CareToLive does not try to alienate or antagonize the many thousands of practicing oncologists. Our only problem has been with the five conflicted oncologists that worked to stop the Provenge license approval, namely Howard Scher, Maha Hussain, Thomas Fleming, Richard Pazdur and Alison Martin. CareToLive informed Mr. Forbes that there are prominent cancer doctors who firmly believe in the Provenge data, and await the approval of the treatment so they may administer it to their patients suffering from late stage prostate cancer.

CareToLive waited for a response from Forbes, without success, and two days later sent notice of the rumor mongering to Enforcement at the SEC. Once again CTL laid out the story, this time covering many of Scher’s conflicts, in particular the fact that Scher publicly admitted on page 3 of his leaked letter that he was leading a Phase III trial for a Provenge competitor. CareToLive believes that Scher should have excused himself from serving and voting on the Provenge Advisory Committee due to his lack of impartiality. CareToLive asked the SEC to investigate Dr. Scher’s conflicts and included the details of Scher’s ProQuest Investments Scientific Advisory position, and his relationship with Novacea.

When this article hits the newsstands any day now, and appears in subscribers’ mailboxes, or in waiting rooms of doctors and dentists, Mr. Herper will have achieved his goal of wrongly influencing the readers.

All of this was CC’d to Steve Forbes, his editors and Mr. Herper so they could see, once again, the other side of the story and to try to encourage Mr. Herper to be objective when he writes his next story on Dendreon and CareToLive. The SEC acknowledged receipt of the complaint.

CareToLive feels the article was in part penned by Mr. Herper out of revenge since CareToLive’s lawyer questioned Mr. Herper’s previous article. It is also CareToLive’s belief that Mr. Herper has never been fair to Provenge in his coverage of this prostate cancer immunotherapy and that Mr. Herper was the first to leak parts of Maha Hussain’s letter, the day before it was officially published.

For more information go to www.CareToLive.com

Popularity: 47%