Introduction of biosimilar pegfilgrastim in France: Economic analysis of switching from originator

Objectives To assess the economic impact of introducing biosimilar pegfilgrastim compared to the current standard granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) practice in France. Methods A budget impact model was developed to investigate the impact of introducing pegfilgrastim biosimilar over 5 years. The model analysed drug acquisition costs, ambulatory costs, as well as costs associated with poor outcomes, and compared the current standard practice of long-acting and short-acting G-CSF to a revised practice including pegfilgrastim biosimilar in addition to standard practice treatments. The cost of switching to pegfilgrastim biosimilar, within a pharmacy setting, was analysed within the model using data from a survey of French pharmacists. Results The budget impact model calculated a cost saving of €51,007,531 over 5 years switching from the current standard practice to pegfilgrastim biosimilar. A sensitivity analysis accounting for variation in pegfilgrastim biosimilar uptake of 1) 15% in year 1 and 1% in years 2–5 and 2) 15% in years 1–5, estimated savings ranging between €29,377,784 and €79,847,194, respectively. A further analysis predicted cost savings of €287,344,835 over 5 years with the extension of pegfilgrastim biosimilar, at an uptake of 15% in year 1 and 7% in years 2–4, to both long-acting and short-acting G-CSF groups compared to unchanged current practice. Conclusions The introduction of pegfilgrastim biosimilar will help to reduce cost and alleviate some of the financial pressure on the French healthcare system.

Proposed Framework for Smart Healthcare Services

Smart healthcare is of great interest to researchers and governments due to the increasing development of new smart cities. However, there is no current standard practice to format the cloud computing infrastructure and to assist the healthcare system architect in designing a comprehensive solution for the basic services that are required by the healthcare users while taking into consideration a balanced approach towards their specific functional and non-functional needs such as openness, scalability, concurrency, interoperability and security factors. The integration of smart healthcare services with cloud computing needs a concrete framework. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the different frameworks that discuss smart healthcare services and reach to a conclusion of the common factors to arrive at a unified and smart framework

Current RNA-seq methodology reporting limits reproducibility

Ribonucleic acid sequencing (RNA-seq) identifies and quantifies RNA molecules from a biological sample. Transformation from raw sequencing data to meaningful gene or isoform counts requires an in silico bioinformatics pipeline. Such pipelines are modular in nature, built using selected software and biological references. Software is usually chosen and parameterized according to the sequencing protocol and biological question. However, while biological and technical noise is alleviated through replicates, biases due to the pipeline and choice of biological references are often overlooked. Here, we show that the current standard practice prevents reproducibility in RNA-seq studies by failing to specify required methodological information. Peer-reviewed articles are intended to apply currently accepted scientific and methodological standards. Inasmuch as the bias-less and optimal RNA-seq pipeline is not perfectly defined, methodological information holds a meaningful role in defining the results. This work illustrates the need for a standardized and explicit display of methodological information in RNA-seq experiments.

Use of a superspreader adjuvant to reduce spray application volumes on avocados

This study was undertaken to determine whether pesticide spray volumes on avocados could be substantially lowered with the use of a superspreader adjuvant and to identify an optimum spray volume and adjuvant rate to maximise spray retention Groundbased airblast applications of copper fungicide were made to 45 year old fruitbearing trees Spray retention was quantified on foliage and fruit at a range of canopy heights and positions Spray deposits on foliage were maintained or improved using reduced volume sprays (500700 litres/ha) incorporating the superspreader DuWett compared to the standard high volume treatment (2500 litres/ ha) The adjuvant maintained total spray deposits on fruit using 35 times less spray volume than is current standard practice There was no evidence of phytotoxicity on any fruit or foliage due to adjuvant sprays The study highlighted deficiencies in current spray application technology used on avocados