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Biotech / Medical : IDPH--Positive preliminary results for pivotal trial of ID -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: contrarian who wrote (1410)	1/6/1998 6:36:00 PM
From: Pseudo Biologist	Respond to of 1762

Contrarian, as long as one sticks to the labeling, I'd say the chances are close to 100%. Otherwise, one would have to ask a few oncologists directly to come up with decent estimates. The upcoming FDA reforms make off-label use easier, but I am not sure how the people who pay for the treatments are going along with this. The take home message for me was that the oncology community is enthusiastic about Rituxan, and that is a good start, I would say. PB

To: contrarian who wrote (1410)	1/6/1998 11:54:00 PM
From: Bob L	Respond to of 1762

Sources at a large HMO in my area say Rituxan will probably be approved for coverage, but the internal review process in the HMO ordinarily takes months! The HMO approval process for Rituxan started after final FDA approval, not a minute before. If an individual patient pushes, there would probably be earlier approval for that patient. So there may a significant ramp-up time before there is widespread coverage, if this HMO is any indication.