Doctor who treated pro wrestler faces more charges

ATLANTA (AP) — The personal doctor to a pro wrestler who killed himself, his wife and their 7-year-old son last year was charged Thursday in a new 175-count federal indictment with conspiracy and improperly dispensing drugs.

The new indictment against Dr. Phil Astin replaces a seven-count indictment last July and involves 17 additional patients. Astin was a doctor for wrestler Chris Benoit. Authorities have said Astin prescribed a 10-month supply of anabolic steroids to Benoit every three to four weeks for a year leading up to the killings.

The indictment alleges that the prescription drugs dispensed by Astin resulted in death or serious bodily injury to one patient. That patient was not named.
Patients in the indictment are referred to in court papers by their initials. Prosecutors would not discuss the initials. However, two entries were initials similar to those of Benoit and his slain wife.

Astin, 52, of Carrollton, is accused of giving the patients hundreds of illegal prescriptions for drugs including methadone, Percocet, Oxycontin, Demerol and Xanax. None of the drugs mentioned were steroids.
U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said the investigation is ongoing.

Astin's lawyer, Natasha Silas, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that she wasn't surprised by the new indictment, since prosecutors had said they planned to file it.
"Moreover, the addition of the new charges does not in any way alter our commitment to vigorously defend Dr. Astin when the allegations are tested in court," Silas said. "Until he was charged in this case, Dr. Astin was a compassionate country doctor, who provided low cost, and sometimes free, medical care to thousands of people in and around the Carrolton community."
The new indictment alleges that Astin illegally distributed prescription drugs by providing multiple, undated prescriptions, writing prescriptions for inappropriate combinations of drugs, or feeding the methadone addictions of patients for months or even years.
Astin was initially charged with illegal distribution of prescription drugs to two patients other than Benoit. Those charges came after the June 2007 killings at Benoit's suburban Atlanta home.

Authorities said Benoit, 40, strangled his wife with a cord, used a choke hold to strangle his son, placed Bibles next to the bodies and hanged himself on a piece of exercise equipment in their Fayetteville home.

Suspicions linking steroid use to the killings have lingered, since anabolic steroids were found in Benoit's home and tests showed Benoit had roughly 10 times the normal level of testosterone in his system.

Some experts believe using testosterone can contribute to paranoia, depression and violent outbursts known as "roid rage." But authorities have never publicly linked the Benoit killings to steroid use, and Benoit's father believes years of head trauma his son suffered while in the ring contributed to the killings.

Poniard says promising data emphasize drug partner need

CHICAGO, June 1 (Reuters) - Drug development company Poniard Pharmaceuticals Inc (PARD.O: Quote, Profile, Research) reported promising preliminary trial results for a new type of chemotherapy on Sunday, findings it hopes will be strong enough to land a development partner to help finance future studies.

"The ideal partner for us would be a single business with a global reach," Jerry McMahon, the company's chief executive, told Reuters.

Poniard unveiled mid-stage data at a meeting here of the American Society of Clinical Oncology showing that the drug -- a new type of platinum-based chemotherapy -- given in combination with standard chemo drugs 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin, appears to be as effective as the two drugs combined with oxaliplatin for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
That is important because oxaliplatin causes some type of nerve pain in 80 percent to 90 percent of patients, leading them to either reduce or abandon treatment, McMahon said.
Early results from the ongoing 100-patient Phase II trial showed that out of 11 evaluated patients on the experimental regimen, 10 achieved disease control. Of 13 evaluated patients on the standard regimen, 10 achieved disease control, including one partial response.

"The data looks very good. It is consistent with our thesis," the CEO said, noting that Poniard has not yet seen a single case of severe neuropathy in colon cancer patients treated with picoplatin.

The company is currently conducting a pivotal trial of the drug in small-cell lung cancer and expects to have picoplatin on the market for that indication in 2010. Poniard also presented at ASCO this weekend data from trials of the drug in prostate and ovarian cancer patients.
"The data at this meeting says there are other trials we need to do ... It makes a lot of sense now that we seek a partner for registrational trials," McMahon said.
He said Poniard would consider a partnership deal prior to receipt of the pivotal lung cancer data if the terms respect the fact that the company will soon have data across a number of oncology indications.

Oxaliplatin, sold by Sanofi Aventis (SASY.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) under the brand name Eloxatin for colorectal cancer, has annual sales of more than $2 billion.
"If the ongoing Phase I/II data show comparable efficacy as oxaliplatin-based regimen, we believe that picoplatin may have a big opportunity in colorectal cancer," Leerink Swann analyst Howard Liang said in a recent research note.