A Big Launch
Friday, September 11, 2015 at 11:57AM 
Lately, Pharmaceuticals are also feeling the pinch. New drug launch were hard to come by, and the ones which did see the light of day had plenty of back-end investment behind it. Rarely are these "blockbusters", and oftentimes the niche drugs were left behind.
Last night, the MSH Members were invited to attend a dinner launch of a new monocloncal antibody, Brentuximab. Touted to the the next best thing as far as Hodgkin's Lymphoma is concerned, the company behind it, Takeda were putting plenty of effort for the launch. A foreign speaker was invited to give her insight on the new drug, and we were treated to a sumptuous dinner.
There was some fanfare at the launch as well, but everybody were a bit cagey when we talked about the costing. It would be a bomb and beyond most of the average patient could afford. With the tightening of the budget and the insurance company putting more scrutiny on the patient claims, the cost would be a barrier for this - otherwise sound therapeutic agent - to penetrate the scene. The cost is even beyond your typical SJMC patient.
How do we solve this issue? A patient support or access program would be needed, tapping into the generosity of the Pharmaceutical industry so that our patients could benefit from such an advancement. It also meant that those recieving the drug had to be pre-selected, and this pre-selection process may not be clear cut.
Therefore, events such as these including sharing of the experience of those lucky enough to have been able to use the drug is vital. And this is going to be the pattern in the future. Expensive, but effective drug catering for the niche market. Unfortunately this would be typical in my field. For without the investments of the "Big Pharma" we would not be able to enjoy some downstream benefit. I was sure that if the company were to open up an access program, the cost must be recouped from their operation somewhere else - either a different arm of their business or their operations abroad in developed market.
Bangsar South, Brentuximab, Pharmaceuticals, drug launch, event in Diary, Event 
LAMPU 2015
It was a spur of the moment thing. Anita learned about the event and asked if we could go, and the decision was made within a couple of hours. She called the driver up and arranged everything. Initially I planned to attend a photo exhibition in town. I got hijacked.
So, off we go with Idlan in tow.
LAMPU - Lights and Motion Putrajaya - is a yearly extravaganza of light blitz. This year would be the third edition of the event, held at the spectacular backdrop of Putrajaya. The main events took place in the evening - for three straight nights - with a brilliant light shows. That was what we went there for.
Unfortunately the heaven opened. It rained heavily all the way to Putrajaya, but luckily it stopped when we arrived. The rain only returned when the light show started, and we were already under a shade.
The light show was not bad although we only managed to stay for around half an hour due to the weather. We didn't get to venture into the other attractions - food truck and stalls - having to rush back to avoid the rush of people returning from the event.
The turnout was pretty decent considering the rain. We reached there just after 8, with the show starting at around 8.30. The light show lasted around 15 minutes and will be repeated multiple times during he course if the night. We were there for the first show.
Apart from the light show, there were some nice light effects at the gardens. We wished that we were better informed of the event. We tried hard to surf the net for more info but they were clearly lacking. We ended up just going with the flow and at the mercy of where we find our parking space. Definitely would go again but wished that we could plan the visit better.