DecisionView, a computationally intensive patient recruitment simulation firm, won an award from research firm IDC and PPM Media, a relatively unknown entrant in the pharmaceutical meeting space. Here’s a previous ClinPage story on the firm.

For $62 million, Lilly settled litigation with 32 states that alleged the company promoted the antipsychotic medication Zyprexa for more common conditions, like depression, for which it had never been approved. The company said it had done nothing wrong, and wanted to put the matter behind it. “Lilly has implemented and continues to review and enhance a broadly based compliance program that includes comprehensive compliance-related activities designed to ensure that its marketing and promotional practices comply with promotional laws and regulations,” Lilly’s statement noted.

With the end of capitalism nigh, we thought we’d offer a data point to the contrary. HairDX is a real company hoping to combine low-cost genomics and therapeutics. The company has a test for a specific genetic mutation that it claims can predict hair loss. The use of the test is being marketed exclusively through selected dermatology practices. The firm is aiming to drive female customers toward preventive FDA-approved hair loss treatments manufactured by other firms. Now HairDX is launching its own clinical trial. “The HairDX drug trial may usher a new era in the treatment of female androgenetic alopecia,” said Antonella Tosti, MD, professor of dermatology at the University of Bologna in Italy.

The small pictures used to help humans identify themselves online (and protect websites from hackers) are called CAPTCHA images. They are useless. Hackers can break 25,000 CAPTCHAs per day using organized efforts in India and China. Hat tip to Ars Technica.

Just as politicians in the U.S. designed a rock-solid banking system and a 14th-century mobile telephone network, they also picked the worst available method for radio frequency identification (RFID). That’s one message buried in a long Scientific American report on privacy last month. (Here’s is one element in the package.) Most of the world will use the “ISO 14443” standard for RFID. But the Americans picked the “Gen 2” standard. Even new Chinese identity cards have stronger RFID encryption than what’s being used, for example, in Washington state driver’s licenses. Hence a prediction. By 2018, after high-visibility privacy breaches have occurred, and most U.S. citizens have figured out the scope of the mess, they’ll reject RFID in any context where they have a choice about it—like, say, pharmaceutical packaging. Here’s the organization that sets the RFID standards.

The Journal of the Life Sciences makes a case that institutional review boards (IRBs) don’t do enough to communicate research findings to the patients who helped make them possible. Most patients want such data, the article states. And U.S. officials are considering formal mechanisms to keep study participants aware of adverse events that arise after a trial ends. The article notes that the logistical aspects of keeping such communication channels open could be significant. Here’s the story.

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