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American Morning

Sinus Trouble Over Mayo Clinic's New Sinus Infection Treatment

Aired May 01, 2003 - 07:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: On the health front this morning, there is good news and bad news for millions of sinus sufferers. The good news is there's a new treatment for chronic sinus infections, and the Mayo Clinic is all over it. The bad news? The Mayo Clinic's all over it.
Our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin are here to explain the medical and legal implications of all of this.

This is a very complicated story. So, first, let's start with you, Sanjay, and the treatment that was discovered for sinus sufferers. And there are 32 million people who have...

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... sinusitis in this country. So, does the treatment work?

GUPTA: Well, we don't know that at least for a fact right now. What they thought is that a fungus is actually present in all of these people with chronic sinusitis. Kind of disgusting, but that's what they found.

They also found the same fungus is present in everybody who doesn't have sinusitis. A little bit of a confusion there.

What seems to be happening in people with chronic sinusitis is that the body reacts much more profoundly to this fungus in people who develop the sinusitis. So these doctors at Mayo Clinic have decided they're going to try and use anti-fungals to treat chronic sinusitis. It's something that's been tried before, but this is something that they think really has some teeth this time.

COSTELLO: OK, so here's the problem -- some say here's the problem: The doctors did the research at the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic has now -- now has something called a broad patent on the treatment. What does that mean?

JEFFREY TOOBON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, we're used to thinking of patents as an individual drug has a patent, an individual product has a patent. What the Mayo Clinic has done, and it's been done in a number of cases but not that many before, is they've patented the whole method of treatment. It's a broad patent. It's basically saying, stay away from our treatment, don't do this kind of treatment, or, potentially, we'll see you. Their claim is the only way they can get a drug company to exploit, to use this patent is to have such a broad patent. But the concern is if the patent is so broad, no one else will go and investigate this area and try to come up with other treatments within this sort of broad area.

COSTELLO: And before we get into that, we must mention that this has everything to do with money, too, doesn't it?

TOOBIN: Right. I mean, that's really what it is all about. What they are saying is they want -- the whole idea behind patent law is it gives you an incentive to discover new things, because you can exploit it financially. Here, they want to partner with a drug company, and the drug company will put money in to try to exploit the patent. But if it's so broad, no one else will look into this apparently very promising area of law.

COSTELLO: OK, no one will research it or will be able to touch this. And how might that affect the medical community?

GUPTA: Well, you know, the way that it typically works is that it's almost like they're putting the horse in front of the cart here a little bit. Typically the way it works is you prove that something is safe, then you prove it's effective, and then you prove that it's more effective than anything else that's already out there.

So you've got this one researcher who is using something that by the way is already out there. Anti-fungals are a well-known treatment. But he's saying, you know, we're going to try and patent this for this particular condition, as Jeffrey correctly mentioned.

It's unusual where someone to actually finds the cause of a disease, which is what they've done here, possibly. But they haven't proven any of this yet, so it's like, you know, they're on the 90-yard line and the game has just started. I don't think...

COSTELLO: And they're just sort of protecting themselves, so, again, they can reap most of the profit.

TOOBIN: You're shocked to hear this.

COSTELLO: I'm not shocked.

TOOBIN: You are. It's just -- no, it's true.

COSTELLO: I'm just saying, like, isn't it the American way?

TOOBIN: But, I mean, that's the confusion here. I mean, that's the difficulty here is that you want to give people an incentive, but you know, if they own the whole game, the whole ballgame, then no one else can come in. I mean, do you think this is a problem?

GUPTA: Well, I think that it possibly drives capitalism. It possibly drives a bunch of pharmaceutical companies to say, you know what? Let's get on this bandwagon. Yes, it's profit-driven, but the benefit might be to patients out there to get their sinusitis treated more quickly, and I think it's great.

But what I think is really going to happen, it's just going to drive up the cost of potentially a very good treatment.

COSTELLO: And...

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: As always...

COSTELLO: As always.

TOOBIN: ... I agree with Sanjay. I feel better just sitting there.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Toobin, Gupta, many thanks to you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.




Treatment>


Aired May 1, 2003 - 07:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: On the health front this morning, there is good news and bad news for millions of sinus sufferers. The good news is there's a new treatment for chronic sinus infections, and the Mayo Clinic is all over it. The bad news? The Mayo Clinic's all over it.
Our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin are here to explain the medical and legal implications of all of this.

This is a very complicated story. So, first, let's start with you, Sanjay, and the treatment that was discovered for sinus sufferers. And there are 32 million people who have...

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... sinusitis in this country. So, does the treatment work?

GUPTA: Well, we don't know that at least for a fact right now. What they thought is that a fungus is actually present in all of these people with chronic sinusitis. Kind of disgusting, but that's what they found.

They also found the same fungus is present in everybody who doesn't have sinusitis. A little bit of a confusion there.

What seems to be happening in people with chronic sinusitis is that the body reacts much more profoundly to this fungus in people who develop the sinusitis. So these doctors at Mayo Clinic have decided they're going to try and use anti-fungals to treat chronic sinusitis. It's something that's been tried before, but this is something that they think really has some teeth this time.

COSTELLO: OK, so here's the problem -- some say here's the problem: The doctors did the research at the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic has now -- now has something called a broad patent on the treatment. What does that mean?

JEFFREY TOOBON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, we're used to thinking of patents as an individual drug has a patent, an individual product has a patent. What the Mayo Clinic has done, and it's been done in a number of cases but not that many before, is they've patented the whole method of treatment. It's a broad patent. It's basically saying, stay away from our treatment, don't do this kind of treatment, or, potentially, we'll see you. Their claim is the only way they can get a drug company to exploit, to use this patent is to have such a broad patent. But the concern is if the patent is so broad, no one else will go and investigate this area and try to come up with other treatments within this sort of broad area.

COSTELLO: And before we get into that, we must mention that this has everything to do with money, too, doesn't it?

TOOBIN: Right. I mean, that's really what it is all about. What they are saying is they want -- the whole idea behind patent law is it gives you an incentive to discover new things, because you can exploit it financially. Here, they want to partner with a drug company, and the drug company will put money in to try to exploit the patent. But if it's so broad, no one else will look into this apparently very promising area of law.

COSTELLO: OK, no one will research it or will be able to touch this. And how might that affect the medical community?

GUPTA: Well, you know, the way that it typically works is that it's almost like they're putting the horse in front of the cart here a little bit. Typically the way it works is you prove that something is safe, then you prove it's effective, and then you prove that it's more effective than anything else that's already out there.

So you've got this one researcher who is using something that by the way is already out there. Anti-fungals are a well-known treatment. But he's saying, you know, we're going to try and patent this for this particular condition, as Jeffrey correctly mentioned.

It's unusual where someone to actually finds the cause of a disease, which is what they've done here, possibly. But they haven't proven any of this yet, so it's like, you know, they're on the 90-yard line and the game has just started. I don't think...

COSTELLO: And they're just sort of protecting themselves, so, again, they can reap most of the profit.

TOOBIN: You're shocked to hear this.

COSTELLO: I'm not shocked.

TOOBIN: You are. It's just -- no, it's true.

COSTELLO: I'm just saying, like, isn't it the American way?

TOOBIN: But, I mean, that's the confusion here. I mean, that's the difficulty here is that you want to give people an incentive, but you know, if they own the whole game, the whole ballgame, then no one else can come in. I mean, do you think this is a problem?

GUPTA: Well, I think that it possibly drives capitalism. It possibly drives a bunch of pharmaceutical companies to say, you know what? Let's get on this bandwagon. Yes, it's profit-driven, but the benefit might be to patients out there to get their sinusitis treated more quickly, and I think it's great.

But what I think is really going to happen, it's just going to drive up the cost of potentially a very good treatment.

COSTELLO: And...

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: As always...

COSTELLO: As always.

TOOBIN: ... I agree with Sanjay. I feel better just sitting there.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Toobin, Gupta, many thanks to you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.




Treatment>