The FDA quietly changed the rules to block the next Martin Shkreli

Regulatory change fast-tracks generics that would compete with overpriced drugs.

(credit: CSPAN)

With a tiny change to the rules, the Food and Drug Administration made it a bit harder for Martin Shkreli and his ilk to make a killing by jacking up the prices of off-patent drugs.

The regulatory tweak now allows a “priority” or expedited review process for any generic drug that would compete with an off-patent drug that is only made by one company—the kinds of drugs that have seen skyrocketing price tags of late. The faster review process could cut the window for a pharmaceutical company to have a monopoly over the drug from years to months, sharply cutting profits from potential price gouging.

In an e-mail to Bloomberg, FDA spokesperson Sandy Walsh wrote that the agency expects as many as 125 generic drug applications will now be fast-tracked due to the change. The agency previously expedited reviews of generics that would compete with newly off-patent brand name drugs.

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Streit um Axanar: Für Star-Trek-Fanfilm könnte es eng werden

Die Macher des Star-Trek-Fanfilms Axanar sind vom Rechteinhaber Paramount/CBS wegen Copyright-Verletzungen verklagt worden – und haben im Gegenzug eine Auflistung der Verstöße verlangt. Dass die Antwort darauf so deutlich ausfallen würde, hatte das Axanar-Team wohl nicht erwartet. (Star Trek, Urheberrecht)

Die Macher des Star-Trek-Fanfilms Axanar sind vom Rechteinhaber Paramount/CBS wegen Copyright-Verletzungen verklagt worden - und haben im Gegenzug eine Auflistung der Verstöße verlangt. Dass die Antwort darauf so deutlich ausfallen würde, hatte das Axanar-Team wohl nicht erwartet. (Star Trek, Urheberrecht)

Alpha Go: Die nächste Revolution im Go und anderswo

Alpha Go hat doch Schwächen, wie sich nach dem dritten Spiel gegen den weltbesten menschlichen Go-Spieler zeigte. Nach Ende des Matches ist aber klar: Die KI wird eine enorme Entwicklung anstoßen – nicht nur in dem asiatischen Brettspiel. (KI, Server)

Alpha Go hat doch Schwächen, wie sich nach dem dritten Spiel gegen den weltbesten menschlichen Go-Spieler zeigte. Nach Ende des Matches ist aber klar: Die KI wird eine enorme Entwicklung anstoßen - nicht nur in dem asiatischen Brettspiel. (KI, Server)

Gigabyte Brix Skylake UHD is a bigger mini-PC (with NVIDIA graphics)

Gigabyte Brix Skylake UHD is a bigger mini-PC (with NVIDIA graphics)

Gigabyte is considering making its line of mini-desktop computers a bit bigger with a model that’s… a bit bigger. The company is showing off a prototype called the Gigabyte Brix Skylake UHD at the CeBIT show in Germany this week, and while the computer is only 4.3″ x 4.3″ wide and deep, it’s about 8.6″ tall. […]

Gigabyte Brix Skylake UHD is a bigger mini-PC (with NVIDIA graphics) is a post from: Liliputing

Gigabyte Brix Skylake UHD is a bigger mini-PC (with NVIDIA graphics)

Gigabyte is considering making its line of mini-desktop computers a bit bigger with a model that’s… a bit bigger. The company is showing off a prototype called the Gigabyte Brix Skylake UHD at the CeBIT show in Germany this week, and while the computer is only 4.3″ x 4.3″ wide and deep, it’s about 8.6″ tall. […]

Gigabyte Brix Skylake UHD is a bigger mini-PC (with NVIDIA graphics) is a post from: Liliputing

Digistreet und Citytouch: Philips’ Straßenleuchten werden Vodafone-Kunden

Philips’ Straßenleuchten funken bald vorzugsweise ins Vodafone-Mobilfunknetz. Und dank Erweiterungsslots sind Leuchten in der Planung, die erst später mit Intelligenz ausgestattet werden müssen. (LED-Lampe, Netzwerk)

Philips' Straßenleuchten funken bald vorzugsweise ins Vodafone-Mobilfunknetz. Und dank Erweiterungsslots sind Leuchten in der Planung, die erst später mit Intelligenz ausgestattet werden müssen. (LED-Lampe, Netzwerk)

Radeon Pro Duo mashes two Fury GPUs together for 16 teraflops of performance

AMD wants $1,500 for it and you’ll need three PCIe power plugs to use one.

After first being teased at E3 2015, AMD has finally made its dual Fury GPU official. Dubbed the Radeon Pro Duo, the card combines two of AMD's top tier Fiji GPUs (as used in the Fury X and Fury Nano) onto a single card, resulting in a claimed 16 teraflops of compute performance. The price for such power? A mere $1499 (UK pricing TBC, but probably around £1200). The Radeon Pro Duo goes on sale in "early" Q2 2016.

While that price might seem steep, it is substantially less than Nvidia's most recent dual dual-GPU offering, the Titan Z, which launched at $3000 (£2399) before dropping to $2000 (£1499). AMD's previous dual-GPU card, the R9 295X2, launched at $1500 before dropping to less than $1000 months after launch.

You do get a lot for your cash, though. Both GPUs on the Radeon Pro Duo sport the full array of 4096 stream processors, 256 texture units, and 256 ROPs. There's 8GB of high bandwidth memory on board, split between the two GPUs, running at 1GHz on a substantial 4096-bit bus for 512GB/s of bandwidth. Like the Fury X, the Radeon Pro Duo is liquid cooled via an all-in-one unit with a 120mm radiator.

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Razer Blade 2016 laptop packs GeForce 970m graphics into a 4.3 pound case

Razer Blade 2016 laptop packs GeForce 970m graphics into a 4.3 pound case

Razer is refreshing its line of portable gaming laptops with the new 2016 model Razer Blade. Like the model Razer launched a year ago, the new Blade has a 14 inch, 320 x 1800 pixel display and discrete graphics. But the new model has an Intel Skylake processor, more powerful graphics, and a body that’s […]

Razer Blade 2016 laptop packs GeForce 970m graphics into a 4.3 pound case is a post from: Liliputing

Razer Blade 2016 laptop packs GeForce 970m graphics into a 4.3 pound case

Razer is refreshing its line of portable gaming laptops with the new 2016 model Razer Blade. Like the model Razer launched a year ago, the new Blade has a 14 inch, 320 x 1800 pixel display and discrete graphics. But the new model has an Intel Skylake processor, more powerful graphics, and a body that’s […]

Razer Blade 2016 laptop packs GeForce 970m graphics into a 4.3 pound case is a post from: Liliputing

Forschung: Tweets sollen die S-Bahn-Fahrt bequemer machen

Forscher am Hasso-Plattner-Institut arbeiten an einer Methode, S-Bahn-Ausfälle vorherzusagen. Dazu werden maschinell Twitter-Nachrichten ausgewertet und analysiert. Bei der Routenplanung könnten dann Strecken umgangen werden, auf denen es häufig zu Ausfällen oder Verspätungen kommt. (Hasso Plattner, Deutsche Bahn)

Forscher am Hasso-Plattner-Institut arbeiten an einer Methode, S-Bahn-Ausfälle vorherzusagen. Dazu werden maschinell Twitter-Nachrichten ausgewertet und analysiert. Bei der Routenplanung könnten dann Strecken umgangen werden, auf denen es häufig zu Ausfällen oder Verspätungen kommt. (Hasso Plattner, Deutsche Bahn)

AMD GPU roadmap reveals HBM2-powered Vega and Navi

But AMD’s Raja Koduri hints Polaris may be limited to GDDR5 and HBM1.

For the first time in a long time, AMD has an honest-to-goodness GPU product roadmap, and it names the company's next two GPU architectures: Vega and Navi.

Revealed at this year's Game Developers Conference during the AMD "Capsaicin" event, the roadmap is light on details, but it does hint at what the future might hold for AMD's GPUs. For starters, Vega is due to arrive early in 2017, not long after the release of Polaris. Interestingly, the roadmap explicity calls out Vega's use of HBM2 memory, a feature that was originally supposed to be a part of the upcoming Polaris architecture and used alongside traditional GDDR5 memory.

In an interview with PC Perspective, AMD's Raja Koduri hinted that Polaris would instead use HBM1, rather than its more accomplished counterpart. Of particular concern is that current HBM1 implementations are limited to 4GB stacks—HBM2 can go as high as 16GB—which could carry over to Polaris. Given that GPU memory requirements have skyrocketed over the past year, that could put Polaris at a significant disadvantage, particularly when Nvidia has confirmed that at least some Pascal parts will use HBM2.

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Asus Zenbook UX360 convertible coming soon?

Asus Zenbook UX360 convertible coming soon?

Asus may be planning to expand its Zenbook line of ultrabooks with a new model sporting a convertible tablet-style design. Notebook Italia spotted an FCC listing for a new Asus device called the UX360C, and it turns out a number of retailers around the globe are starting to show product listings for similar models. Details are […]

Asus Zenbook UX360 convertible coming soon? is a post from: Liliputing

Asus Zenbook UX360 convertible coming soon?

Asus may be planning to expand its Zenbook line of ultrabooks with a new model sporting a convertible tablet-style design. Notebook Italia spotted an FCC listing for a new Asus device called the UX360C, and it turns out a number of retailers around the globe are starting to show product listings for similar models. Details are […]

Asus Zenbook UX360 convertible coming soon? is a post from: Liliputing