Replies to post #115845 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Wikipedia HbA1c quiz—I have a nitpicky objection to the article that is probably not the “serious error” you have in mind. In this statment:

The HbA1c level is proportional to average blood glucose concentration over the previous four weeks to three months…

…I object to the word proportional because there’s a non-zero constant term in the linear relationship between HbA1c and the midpoint of the eAG range, as can be seen in the table that north40000 posted in #msg-60560038. For instance, HbA1c=6% corresponds to an eAG point estimate of 126 mg/dL, while HbA1c=12% corresponds to an eAG point estimate of 298; thus, the 12% number is about 2.4-fold higher than the 6% number (rather than being only twice as much).

[biomaven0]

To save everyone's time, let me add that the error I am concerned about is in the "Interpretation of results" section

Here's the link again - the previous one is contaminated by the block quote html:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycated_hemoglobin

Peter

[CrazyPete]

the statement about ref [21] is wrong, that study found that patients with A1C > 6.5% had lower mortality, not higher.

[DewDiligence]

Quiz—This NYT article on Big Pharma’s woes has a serious misstatement, one bad enough to be characterized as egregious:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/business/07drug.html

What is it?