Stephen Colbert capitalizes on increasing effectiveness of placebos

A recent Wired magazine piece outlined the increasing effectiveness of the placebo effect. Biotechs are finding their drugs, new and old, are failing tests because they’re no more effective than a placebo.

In August, for example, Javelin Pharmacauticals reported in August that tests of its pain reliever, Ereska, returned a pain intensity difference between Ereska and placebos that fell short of clinical standards.

Taking a problem and turning it into an opportunity, Stephen Colbert, D.F.A.’s Prescott Pharmaceuticals is rolling out Vaxebo, a bag of sugar from which to make those increasingly effective sugar-pill placebos.

Posted by Brendan Lynch

Tags: Ereska, Javelin Pharmaceuticals, placebos, Prescott Pharmaceuticals, Stephen Colbert, Vaxebo

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Entrepreneurship, Life Sciences, Massachusetts. 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.