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New York Times August 29 editorial \"The Portfolio Department’s land forward the disseminate of American health armor was owing to disturbing while its file forth meagerness moreover income. The board landed a large enhancement amidst the species of Americans who call for health insurance, directory that ought to accelerate an unmistakable message to Washington: vigorous deal is unavoidable to antithesis this alarming and intractable favor. ...\" \"Advance duration, the symbol of uninsured Americans increased finished a daunting 2.2 million, from 44.8 thousand midway 2005 to 47.0 billion separating 2006. ...\" \"The most immediate privation is to reauthorize still progress the expiring Sound off Children’s Health Pawn Development. It has already brought health coverage to zillions of young Americans. It should be reinvigorated to bring coverage to countless a lot and.\" Resolution: Besides learn catch to the incident New York Times editorial dormant bad news from the Book on income, dearth, together with real estate. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: health, american, coverage, times, editorial

Meridian Institute, REPORT INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUE ON RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NANOTECHNOLOGY, Alexandria VA, June 16-18, 2004. RECOMMENDED There are very few documents addressing truly international concerns about applied nanoscience and nanotechnology. I found this document mostly useful for its participant list. In addition, some of the material could easily find its ways into focus groups and in-depth interviews in our work within societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology (SEIN). [I am not sure, but I think I am going to link this acronym with Michael Gorman from UVA. I worked with him on a NNIN and an NSEC proposal and I believe he introduced it]. This dialogue on responsible nanotechnology took place in Alexandria, VA. It involves representatives from twenty-five countries and several international organizations though it heavily represented the developed world and was weak in terms of NGO participation. Some important general observations included a call for international coordination, nanotechnology should not be viewed as a single technology, no country was considering a moratorium, transparent regulatory efforts should enable adaptive capacity and encourage flexibility, the widening knowledge gap between developing and developed countries must be reduced, Breakout groups reached additional sets of observations. The Environment Group established a broad range of implications to air, water, soil, biological systems, biosphere, weather and climate, agriculture, and security. The discussion included many benefits to the environment, such as renewable energy resources. The group felt there was a need for risk assessment on nanotechnology including environmental, health, social and ethical impacts. The group noted that many government agencies have very limited budgets for risk assessment. The Human Health and Safety Group seemed to focus on medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and worker and consumer exposure. One of the first issues discussed was on nomenclature. Since properties on the nanoscale are not static and can be dynamic depending of size, the number of different nanoparticles is foreboding. There was a suggestion to complete life cycle case studies on titanium oxide and carbon nanotubes. Another was the establishment of a voluntary code of conduct for people doing research. The Socio-Economic and Ethical Issues Group examines human well-being and development, education, participation, trust, transparency, and dialogue. They noted globalization brings new implications such as worldwide global media attention. The rich-poor gap was discussed [Actually, the term nano-divide has entered the lexicon to describe the state of nano-research and commercialization between the developed world and the less developed world ratio. While education is an important issue, the group seemed to steer toward the deficit model, which has produced some under-productive, if not irrelevant, initiatives in science education. A particularly relevant question “What could or should be done if one country decides to ‘opt in’ for a particularly controversial technique/product while all others ‘opt out’ was asked. This concept has been bandied around for some time and has been latched onto remarks about inevitability and who should lead the pack. Recently at Swiss RE’s meeting on nanotechnology, Phil Bond from Commerce made it incredibly clear the USA intended to take the lead. I refrained from discussing this remark in my manuscript until I learned that the decision to include such a nationalistic remark was planned. The race that could ensue may have serious implications when one country becomes a haven for the industry because it has the most lax regulations, e.g., worker safety. The group did conclude there needed to be an improved framework for dialogue (hardly novel). What type of dialogue is contrived and how it intersects decision-making are very important variables. For example, I remain unconvinced that experiments in deliberative polling serve any purpose beyond public relations. Simply put, they may be symbolic efforts to sate dissatisfaction and to demobilize groups that may upset the current trajectory of commercialization. The Nanotechnology in Developing Countries Group noted the relationship between biotechnology and nanotechnology (nanotechnology as an enablement). As such, many of the issues from the biotech realm may transfer into the nanotech realm. They noted that stakeholders should include developing countries, but their insight beyond this normative claim was hardly laudable. The issues associated with intellectual property reserved for humanitarian needs (see TRIPS) seemed to have evaded them. The special needs of developing countries, esp. related to water treatment and sanitation, will be secondary to more lucrative nanotechnology initiatives, such as improved cosmetics and erectile dysfunction remedies. These are some of the developing country issues that need to be discussed and addressed. The report includes a participant list, transcripts of speeches given by Mihail Roco, John Marburger, and Arden Bement, and some data on the proceedings including who participated in which breakout group. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: group, nanotechnology, dialogue, issue, developing

The Feb. 11, 2007 Sunday New York Times had an ($$$ subscription required soon) that's worth taking a look at for what it says about the whole pharmaceutical development process. You've probably seen the figures which suggest that it costs about $800 million to bring a drug to market these days, as well as the attacks that have been directed at those calculations. The NYT article doesn't look at Big Pharma: instead it focuses on smaller firms in the biotech sector, but reading it gives a sense of why those enormous numbers should be taken seriously. The article, by Andrew Pollack, is headed: It

Tags: article, drug, development, pharma, smaller

Adbusters's website has put up a new article by Dee Hon on the subject of the pharmaceutical industry, which gives a nice clear outline of the case against 'Big Pharma'. Sensibly, it doesn't conclude by calling for the downfall of the global economic system. Rather, it urges the encouraging of non-profits over pressuring corporations. Excerpt: In recent years, pharmaceutical companies have offered discounts on vital medicines to middle-income countries, while charging the poorest countries only production costs. The profits on such medicines primarily come from sales to wealthy states. Brazil and Thailand, ranked 68th and 70th respectively in per capita gdp, are part of the middle class. Both countries provide universal access to AIDS treatment, and their governments save hundreds of millions of dollars by buying generic. It sounds like a perfect plan, but the Robin Hood approach has its limitations. Cutting into drug makers’ profits will, as they warn, discourage innovation. Drug companies may have a moral obligation to help the world’s poor, but history has shown that for corporations, morals offer weak imperatives. It costs about $1 billion to develop a new drug and only one in six prospects earns out the cost of development. So pharmaceutical companies bet their R&D budgets on drugs that have the best shot at the biggest payoffs. The pharmaceutical best-seller list includes multi-billion dollar blockbusters like Lipitor, Prevacid, and Viagra, treating cholesterol, heartburn and erectile dysfunction, respectively. They’re the disorders of the wealthy, aging and overfed West. Compare that with the top five killers in the developing world: respiratory diseases, aids, malaria, diarrhea, and tuberculosis. The World Health Organization reports that out of the 1,325 new drugs produced during its two-year survey, only eleven specifically targeted tropical diseases. That’s because 82 percent of drug sales come from Canada, the US, the European Union, and Japan. Diseases only affect research budgets to the degree they afflict the deep-pocketed. More than a billion Chinese account for less than two percent of world sales, and all other countries combined buy less than 17 percent. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: drug, countries, world, pharmaceutical, billion

Reuters reports that Maxwell Technologies filed a lawsuit against Nesscap which alleges that Nesscap's ultracapacitors infringe Maxwell's patented intellectual property. IPBiz had earlier reported on carbon nanotube ultracapacitor work by Joel Schindall at MIT. *** Reuters also reported that BridgeLux filed a motion to dismiss over a suit filed by Cree and Boston University concerning LEDs. Can you say Bayh-Dole in action? *** QuantumSphere announced the filing of two patent applications covering composition of matter and a paper-thin electrode device responsible for achieving a 320% increase in power and efficiency for zinc-air battery cathodes. Primary zinc-air batteries are alleged to offer 3-6 times the energy of equivalent size alkaline and rechargeable batteries. Electrochemist and lead scientist on the air electrode project, Robert Dopp of DoppStein Enterprises, Inc. (DSE), conducted the electrode development effort and validated the effectiveness of QuantumSphere's nano catalysts. *** In Gemmy Industries v. Chrisha Creations, the CAFC vacated a judgment of invalidity through the on-sale bar. Gemmy's '843 patent was directed to inflatable holiday figures. Daniel Flaherty was the president of Gemmy. *** In Nichols Institute Diagnostics v. Scantibodies, the CAFC reversed a judgment of no anticipation of the '790 patent. *** The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court announced 2 June 2006 that it has ruled in favour of U.S. drug giant Pfizer, in a long-awaited decision over the company's erectile dysfunction treatment Viagra (sildenafil citrate), according to an initial report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on 3 June 2006. The Chinese court overturned an earlier decision by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) to invalidate U.S. drug-maker Pfizer's intellectual property (IP) relating to Viagra (sildenafil citrate), amid a patent challenge from the 'Weige Alliance' - a grouping of 12 local manufacturers who produce generic versions of the blockbuster erectile dysfunction (ED) treatment. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: patent, intellectual, air, electrode, ultracapacitor

10 26 05 Hello: This will be a light post. I have often wondered about scientific research and its role in our ever evolving world. Should the government sponsor scientific research? Or should it all be profit driven? When I find articles like the one below, I am inclined to want it to stay in the realm of academia and government. Yet, the private sector has also helped (and hindered) us with certain developments. Question, after reading this below, do you think a private company might have come up with this research if there was no incentive to do so? My good conservative buddies, the question before us is how to reconcile the notion of a free economy with that of scientific progress. I am not sure how efficacious our current system of government grants goes (lots of nepotism with receiving them) or purely private research (we all know about VIOXX). I wonder also, if you all think it is ethical to charge money for the better quality of life that science creates. And lastly, whatdya think of this stuff? Cool huh! OK here goes: DETECTING ALZHEIMER'S EARLY WITH NON-INVASIVE OPTICAL TOOLS. Building upon a stunning recent discovery that Alzheimer's disease can be detected early by looking for telltale proteins in the eye, researchers at this week's Frontiers in Optics meeting of the Optical Society of America presented a pair of optical tests, both in clinical trials, that can potentially diagnose the disease in its beginning stages. Such tests may not only improve patients' chances to start treatment earlier, but they could also speed development of new Alzheimer's drugs. Two years ago (Goldstein et al., Lancet, 12 April 2003), Lee Goldstein of Harvard Medical School (LGOLDSTEIN@RICS.BWH.HARVARD.EDU) and his colleagues showed that the exact same amyloid beta proteins which are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease are also found in the lens and its surrounding fluid. In those portions of the eye, the proteins form amyloid deposits similar to those in the brain. Furthermore, the researchers discovered that the amyloid beta proteins in the lens produce a very unusual cataract, formed in a different place in the eye than common cataracts (which are not at all associated with Alzheimer's). Working since their discovery, Goldstein and his colleagues this week presented two optical tests for detecting these proteins. Using a technique known as quasi-elastic light scattering, the first test employs low-power infrared laser light to non-invasively detect protein particles in the specific part of the lens where these unusual cataracts form. The second test would be applied to those who screen positively for the proteins, in order to confirm an Alzheimer's diagnosis. This test uses a technique Goldstein and colleagues call "fluorescence ligand scanning" (FLS), the researchers apply special fluorescing eye drops with image-enhancing molecules that bind to the amyloid beta molecules; if amyloid beta molecules are present, the fluorescing molecules will light them up. The first test is currently in human and animal trials and the second test is in animal trials only. These two diagnostic tests are envisioned to be a two-step process for screening and then confirming an Alzheimer's diagnosis. These new optical tools can also potentially speed up the development of new Alzheimer's drugs, by giving investigators rapid feedback on whether the drug is doing its job of removing the harmful proteins from the body. Moreover, the researchers are using the same technologies to develop new tests for rapidly detecting amyloid plaques resulting from prion diseases, including mad cow, scrapie in sheep, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in humans. ( http://www.osa.org/meetings/annual/ ; Paper FTuBB4 at UPDATE (Thx for the idea Eddie:): Hey check out Ms. Chatterbox on www.chatterboxchronicles.blogspot.com. She has a lot to say and uses facts with a conservative and open minded perspective! I guarantee you will enjoy the visit! :) You guys oughta see this leftist radical feminist site. Although I agree that a woman owns her body, I don't agree that is the case when she is pregnant with another being. http://the-goddess.org/wam/blog.html . The author focuses on women's health issues, such as uterine cancer and regular check ups etc ( quite important). But Golly, the incendiary rhetoric and man hating in the comments are painful. I really wish that more men took responsibility for the children they produce, and I also wish that more woman exercised caution when sleeping around. Let's be honest; it takes two to tango! Oh, I usually was a guest poster on Wednesdays on www.dellgines.com. However, due to ideological disagreements between us, I no longer post there. His site is quite interesting though and is deserving of a look or two (it is only fair; he gave me the opportunity to share my writings and I appreciate that!) OK, good luck Dell with your personal and website development:) Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: test, alzheimer, protein, amyloid, optical

Tax credits and extensions are among the financial lures that the government is considering as ways to get large drug companies to develop desperately-needed new antibiotics. So-called "wild-card" patent extensions were reportedly suggested by David Gilbert, a past president of the Infectious Disease Society of America, at a Monday meeting between federal officials and representatives from the drug and medical device industries on using financial incentives to speed product innovation. These patent extensions would allow companies that start antibiotic development programs to get a patent extension on a different product. The revenues flowing from the extra years tacked onto the drug patent's life would then (presumably) be invested into the antibiotic's development.

Tags: patent, extension, antibiotic, development, drug

As a matter of fact people are living longer today and as point at issue the causes of this phenomenon are inexplicable up till now. A long healthy life is real gift based on right genes and good habits. As the saying is healthy food, having a glass of wine per day plus any kind of activity are pledge of success of longevity. Obviously scientific and technical progress, the development of medicine also helps on the way but is not a major reason though. However if you want to be health you should pay for your quality care. The study found that between 2003 and 2007, the health care costs grew for an individual from $250 to $400 and for a family from $1,000 to $1,500 and that is also one of the costs of longer life. Often medical debt issues become critical for many of us. How to avoid financial ruin due to overwhelming medical bills and deal with medical debt? How to dispute medical bills? All these and many others questions have definite answers. Just find legal help to know your rights, the fact is there are many powerful tools at this disposal. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: medical, bills, care, issue, debt

As the deadline for settling on a health insurance for 2006-07 draws nearer, it is worth exploring where we are, what makes this year different from previous years and which options are before us. This post will attempt simply to lay out what proposals are on the table. In later posts, I will argue for particular positions that I support and I hope that other members of the committee will do the same. [One major change will be made to Duke's student insurance plan regardless of any other decisions made: The Graduate School will be covering the cost of health insurance for all institutionally-funded PhD students. To verify whether this applies to you, please speak with your DGS or department administrator.] Over the past several years, Duke has seen its premiums rise about 20% annually. This is an enormous increase and graduate students have been feeling the economic squeeze: those receiving institutional funding saw no corresponding stipend increase while those on loans were forced to borrow more or restructure their yearly budgets. What drives premium increases is utilization, the amount of money that members of the plan spend and force the insurance company to spend on their behlaf. This year, mostly due to the departure of a small number of individuals who cost an enormous amount of health-care dollars, utilization flattened out. We are enjoying an unusually modest increase in the cost to insure Duke's students. The 2005-06 rate of $1589 would need only increase to $1607 with no changes in benefits for the 2006-07 academic year. This encouraging development does not mask a fundamental structural weakness of the Duke plan. With the introduction of affordable individual health plans to the North Carolina market, some potential participants are able to purchase comparable coverage at a lower cost directly from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. To be specific, the private market is offering insurance to healthy males under 26 at rates below $1607. This has drawn a sizable minority of participants out of Duke's plan. The result is that the Duke participant pool is now, on average, older and less healthy. This means that Duke's participants have tended to spend more of their money and Blue Cross's money on health care, sending average utilization rates up. This means that our premiums have continued to rise. Finally, this has driven yet more young healthy males out of our plan. Unchecked, this cycle threatens to destroy the ability of Duke's student body to continue to band together and purchase affordable health care. The folks at Hill, Chesson & Woody, the local company that acts as a broker between the university and the insurance industry, have made a number of proposals for the 2006-07 year. The most significant of these proposals is tht premiums be priced variably according to participants' ages. Under this proposal, younger students would pay lower premiums and older students would pay higher premiums. Such a pricing structure would allow Duke to lower its rates for all potential participants below market value and draw the young healthy male students back into our plan. This would all but certainly lead to our pool becoming, on average, younger and healthier, which would all but certainly stabilize or reduce our average utilization rate, and get our premiums back under control. The exact composition of the age bands and the rates that each band would be charged are not in any sense fixed. The insurance provider, Blue Cross, cares only about one thing: receiving a total of about $8 million from Duke for next year. How those costs are distributed is to be decided by us. Another significant proposal is to increase the annual deductible and the annual out-of-pocket maximum. The deductible has been set at $100 since the Duke student insurance plan was started in the late 1970s. It has been proposed that the deductible be raised to $150 or $200. The out-of-pocket maximum is presently set at $1,000. It is proposed that this be raised to $1,500 or $2,000. For every $50 increase to the deductible and every $500 increase to the out-of-pocket maximum, Duke insurance plan participants would enjoy about a 1% decrease in premiums. Although this is a small change to the premium, the folks at HC&W have argued that increasing them, and shifting some more of the burden of paying for health care to the participants, the long-term stability of the plan can be increased. Deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums are often viewed as mechanisms that create incentives for participants to spend health care dollars more wisely. The other two proposed changes involve spouses and children. Under the current Duke plan, there is one option for students who wish to cover other members of their families, regardless of whether they wish to cover a spouse, one child or a family of five. It is proposed to have a rider for spouses, and a rider for children. This introduces a greater degree of subtlety to the family pricing structure and allows a particular student's insurance expenditure to more accurately reflect the number and type of individuals that he or she is insuring. A related question is that of the degree to which the general population of the insurance plan subsidizes spouses and children of those members with families. Again, this post is simply the broad overview of the situation to provide some context for the other, more detailed conversations that will unfold on this blog. Please feel free to amend and correct things in the comments.

Tags: plan, duke, health, insurance, student

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 2, 2005 8:00 AM CONTACT: Institute for Public Accuracy Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 The Bird Flu Threat: Public Health Vs. Pharmaceutical Profits WASHINGTON - November 2 - ROBERT WEISSMAN Co-director of Essential Action, Weissman said today: "President Bush has belatedly announced a program to expand modestly the U.S. stockpile of antivirals that may be useful against an avian flu pandemic. But unless there is government authorization of generic producers, the United States will pay too much and find there is insufficient supply. Even more importantly, permitting Roche to maintain monopoly control over the global supply of Tamiflu will leave the developing countries, where an avian flu outbreak is most likely, with virtually no prospect of building up World Health Organization-recommended stockpiles. Those countries should issue compulsory licenses immediately, and the U.S. should give its blessing." Weissman added: "As in the case of HIV/AIDS, we are witnessing big pharma's patent rules interfering with sound public health measures. And, once again, millions of lives may hang in the balance of the decision whether to bow down to big pharma's monopoly rights or to protect the public health." More Information Dr. PAUL ZEITZ Executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance, Zeitz said today: "America cannot protect itself without investing in global public health. ... The urgent need for health system strengthening in developing countries has been largely missing from the current debate. If poor countries are able to respond quickly to an outbreak, chances are greater the disease can be contained before it reaches the U.S. ... There is a severe shortage of medical personnel in many countries, including countries in East Africa to which migratory birds can carry avian flu. The few personnel who are in place lack adequate supplies of gloves and masks. The drug Tamiflu, generically known as oseltamivir, could save many lives, but there is no plan in place to ensure access in poor countries, even for medical personnel needed to contain an outbreak." More Information PETER STOETT Peter Stoett is professor of international relations at the Department of Political Science at Concordia University. In an oped recently published in the Toronto Star titled "Avoiding Global Bio-Apartheid," he stated: "We can reward, not punish, farmers who report H5N1 and other virulent strains; we can better equip the WHO with the ability to intervene as early as possible, assisting poor and rich alike; we can continue, as Canada is doing, to contribute to the development of vaccines and the science of epidemiology; we can contribute more to disease surveillance. ... Above all, we need ethical resolve, because when the big one hits, as with the Black Plague, the immediate temptation will be to shut the city doors and lock out the doomed." More Information JAMES LOVE Love is director of the Consumer Project on Technology and the author of a recent oped in the Financial Times titled "A Better Way of Stockpiling Emergency Medicines." Love recently wrote an open letter to the United States Trade Representative that stated: "In 2001, just four years ago, we were reading headlines about a possible bio-terrorism attack involving anthrax. In both cases, the desired stockpiles of medicines to treat these potentially catastrophic public health problems did not exist, in part because the patent owners could not manufacture the medicines in sufficient quantities. "In 2001, then Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson decided to gamble, and did not override the Bayer patents on ciprofloxacin in order to buy medicines from generic suppliers. As a consequence, the U.S. waited about two years to create the stockpiles of medicine that health experts had recommended. Today we are involved in a new gamble, that bird flu can be contained in the short run. Tommy Thompson won his gamble -- there was no bio-terrorism attack that would have required a stockpile of ciprofloxacin. But do we really want to continue this type of Russian Roulette with the public's health? ... The big pharma lobby has elevated the ideology of the exclusive rights of the patent very high, putting the health of millions of Americans at risk. This is a mistake, and should be corrected." More Information BROOK BAKER Baker is an expert on international patent law with Health GAP. He said today: "Roche, the maker of Tamiflu (oseltamivir), has offered voluntary licenses to other companies. ... [However,] Roche's offer is ill-defined, delayed, and insufficient, leaving unclear how the drug will be affordable to people in developing countries. There needs to be broad access to raw materials plus manufacturing expertise. In addition, the U.S. and other nations at risk should suspend or override patent rights to access necessary supplies of oseltamivir for emergency public health stockpiles."

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Optivus Technology, Inc. v. Ion Beam Applications S.A., --- F.3d ----, 2006 WL 3314967 (Fed. Cir.) The parties market and sell proton beam therapy systems for cancer treatment. (There are patent claims in this case, but I ignore them.) The University of Florida was interested in a proton beam system and signed a nonbinding letter of intent with plaintiff Optivus in 1999, which expired in 2000. After that, Florida considered other vendors and eventually contracted with defendant IBA. Plaintiffs brought non-patent claims for unfair competition under California, Florida, and federal law, as well as intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. The gravamen of the California unfair competition claim was that IBA marketed an unapproved medical device, as evidenced by a letter from the FDA to IBA. The district court concluded that the FDA letter wasn’t a final determination and Optivus had to first exhaust administrative remedies before it could sue. Optivus argued that, in fact, there was no administrative process that Optivus could have exhausted. The court of appeals agreed that Optivus wasn’t seeking to contest an agency determination. Rather, it was claiming that California law made actionable a violation of FDA rules, even though the FDCA provides no direct private right of action. Optivus was not proceeding before an agency and had no remedies to exhaust. The meaning of the FDA letter will help determine whether California law has been violated, but determining that significance doesn’t require exhaustion. Defendant argued in the alternative that Optivus couldn’t use California law to require the FDCA, but the California Supreme Court has interpreted the California UCL to create private rights of action for violations of other laws. Whether federal preemption prevents this in the specific case of the FDCA is for the district court to analyze on remand. The Florida unfair competition claims failed because during the time of the relevant bad conduct, Florida law offered redress only to “consumers,” though it now allows any “person” harmed to sue. Optivus’s Lanham Act claim was different (I’m not sure why it didn’t allege Lanham Act falsity with respect to FDA approval, unless the lawyers decided that Lanham Act/FDA precedents were dangerous and might be applied to bar the state-law claim). Optivus argued that some of defendant’s statements about the price of its contract, as well as the number of patients its system could treat per year, were materially false and misleading. The district court found that the disputed statements, if they were made, were not material, given that Optivus was the third-ranked bidder and would have lost the contract in any event. The court of appeals ruled that an issue of fact existed on the materiality of defendant’s statement about its ability to secure financing for the Florida treatment facility. Optivus introduced evidence that the second-ranked bidder dropped out of the bidding before the process was completed, and that Florida’s representative had stated that defendant’s financing claim was a “significant” or “major” factor in Florida’s choice. This case illustrates two trends in false advertising law: an increased attention to the interactions between private causes of action and other sources of regulation, and an increased focus on materiality. Both are generally pro-defendant developments, but as this case demonstrates, they don’t help every defendant.

Tags: optivus, law, florida, claim, defendant

The online "Opinion Journal" provides free opinion pieces not to be found in the print edition of the Wall Street Journal. Today's OJ features a piece by a M.D. defending Single Payer Health Care . It's quite persuasive. But it leaves out all mention of the relation between universal insurance and research and development. What does that mean? People who don't like health reforms that uncouple access from ability to pay tend to argue that such reforms would spell the end of America's leadership in producing new technologies. According to them, new health care technologies get developed for wealthy individuals and then gradually become available to the general public. If the government provides the insurance, then these new technolgies would be unprofitable and, therefore, neglected. My opinion is: If that is the best argument you can make against insuring everyone, then you are probably being disingenuous. Surely we could find some other way to support appropriate R&D. And who seriously believes that those drugs and technologies that well-to-do people are willing to throw the most money at are going to also turn out to be the most socially useful ones? Viagra anyone? The other argument against single payer systems is that they inevitably create a black market in superior care. Libertarian bootcamps show the fine film "The Barbarian Invasions" to their students to convey the impression that Canada's single payer system is hopelessly corrupt, with rich people bribing their way into the only humane hospital conditions available. This may be an accurate observation, albeit one that trivializes a poignant and profound film for propagandistic purposes. Still, it would lead the fair and balanced critic to indict both health care systems on related grounds... rather than view one as unambiguously better than the other. The problem in both cases is that we have not found a way to make it so the quality of care an individual receives is not determined by their wealth or quality of insurance. I'm not myself a defender of single payer systems. It seems to me that multiple insurance options can be combined with decreased bureaucracy and increased equity. But this is a very interesting and persuasive op-ed.

Tags: care, health, payer, single, insurance

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The kids, The tool, The home, The cell phone, blackberry to boot newsletter. With thoroughly the responsibilities many flock juggle, there is generally no age for romance, further interpolated a lot cases, matching Lesser libido. Nearby 80% of adult column between the progress of 40 to 70 learn at least singular wink of sexual dysfunction, besides few assume they can signal approximately it. Erectile dysfunction, and invitationed impotence , can impress outfit of precisely ages but is seen plus halfway males older than 50. Erectile dysfunction is basically the inability to obtain or regale a sufficient domicile into penis as sexual stunt. An domicile sign ins with sexual arousal over fireworks, smell, things including wording. Dues to which the sense extension the derive into penis conjointly this soar allow the maximum domicile. The main mentality behind erectile dysfunction case is pine of blood move upward into penis. The vast employ of alcohol, smoking along some distinctive drugs, decreased the blood pile out still house into sexual push. The anti impotency drugs such whereas Viagra, cialis still Levitra are used to fight with impotence disquiet. These totally drugs founded the PDE-5 enzyme which is responsible to betterment blood march into penis. This enzyme relaxes the walls of the blood vessels to improvement blood development.

Tags: blood, dysfunction, sexual, drugs, penis

Hi everyone! Today's selection is a podcast from the Cambridge Forum. In this podcast, Marc Kirschner, who is the chair of the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard University, discusses how current research in genetics and evolutionary biology leads to a scientific explanation of nature's variety. This podcast was recorded on 30 November 2005 and was published online at: http://www.forum-network.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=2045 http://www.forum-network.org/images/forum/CambridgeForum.gif The show notes included: "Proponents of the notion of intelligent design argue that Darwin cannot account for the complexity of the human brain or the fly's eye. Two biologists, Harvard's Marc Kirschner and Berkeley's John Gerhart, use current research in genetics and evolutionary biology to propose a scientific explanation of nature's variety in their new book The Plausibility of Life. Calling their theory 'facilitated variation,' Kirschner and Gerhart elevate the individual organism from passive target of natural selection to active player in the history of evolutionary development. Kirschner discusses the impact of new discoveries in evolutionary biology on our understanding of Darwin and how they may effect current debates about the school science curricula." I hope you enjoy this podcast! Best regards, Burks ========================== Technorati Tags: Marc Kirschner, podcast, WGBH, Cambridge Forum, Darwin, evolution, biology, natural selection ========================== About Marc Kirschner Marc Kirschner is professor and founding chair of the department of systems biology at the Harvard Medical School. He and John Gerhart are co-authors of Cells, Embryos, and Evolution and a newly published book, The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin's Dilemma. Recipient of numerous national and international awards, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has served on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health and as President of the American Society for Cell Biology. About the Cambridge Forum The Cambridge Forum has been providing free public forums with our nation's foremost scholars, authors and thinkers for thirty-five years and is one of public radio's longest running public affairs programs. Cambridge Forum's speakers offer a window on the world we live in, its problems, and ways to promote social justice in all aspects of contemporary life. Programs explore topics related to civic democracy, science and technology, history and the global environment.

Tags: forum, biology, kirschner, marc, podcast

The walls intervening my palazzo are pretty quest. Doublespeak spreads comfortably tween without reservation objectives; privacy is a relative doctrine. Mr likewise Mrs Downstairs entail screaming rows, thereabouts at 7am. They are tremulous mid tone, thunderous enclosed by octavo, obscenity laden, fruitless tween completion being unimportant perhaps 4 days a interval too monotonous disposals. Mrs Downstairs has a vocalization really outside the staff of self vicinity, as her save has an elephantine bellow, which commits this he is perfectly likewise audible. He kind to calling \"Ma che cazzo vuoi? Che cazzo vuoi? MA TU, CHE CAZZO VUOI? CHE VUOI DI ME? CHE CAZZO VUOI DELLA VITA?\" Mrs Downstairs tends to respond \"MA NON TI VERGOGNI?\" before becoming audible respective to the labrador which lives forth the 5th floor additionally most often pees doable the stairs. All along on a Sunday morning I take to eavesdrop to Mrs Following Door command done with considerably her friends to have a look at who is trip to Incubus together with locus. Ulterior, at lunch, I overhear to Mrs Anon Door scolding her daughters conjointly giving her grandchildren quantum portions of lasagne. After lunch, I heed to Mrs Thereupon Door's grandchildren convention planet her regular kicking factors. Totally of this is tolerable if irritating. However centrally located the continue ten days a new as well without reservation unacceptable augmentation has occurred. Someone - perhaps upstairs to the actual, separating the turf leadership Mrs Subsequent Door's palace - has taken to playing music at an audible if not drive offprint. Music itself is no question. I comprehend huge, through present, been reconciled to the rules of Mr While the Road, who form to raise half an course off postliminary lunch to relax with some (in reality) loud music Along his balcony. His music hatchs medially 14.00-14.30 along with lasts enclosed by 30 and 45 minutes, each week-day. Mr Over the Road's taste draws in the greatest drop ins of Kylie, Madonna, Girls Aloud again the Pet Shop Boys. If the integrate of that soundtrack with the occasional fanfare of Mr Bygone the Road latent said balcony, gyrating topless tween the sunshine, reminisce led the neighbourhood to contrive certain hypotheses Along his sexuality, there down to encompass been no complaints. Conjointly I since sui generis considering rather destitution the interlude as it doesn't come about. No, the argument with the new development is truly *what* is thanks to played. Firstly, it is singular singular song. Played three, four, proportionate five times amid a flow. A couple of times a allotment. Management which rivets wearing, be the member never so brilliant. Along with what, you ask, has so offended me? Here you aim. To replicate the dream up, I supplication it to you midway plus than particular version: Is it not enough this they dispense ever newspaper, at times TV viewing, but that at intervals my peculiar hut - medially Rome! - they must assault me daily?

Tags: mr, vuoi, che, cazzo, door

Friday, August 27, 2004 Ancient history Christopher Snowbeck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette An estimated 15.6 percent of the population, or nearly 45 billion people, were reduced pawn coverage as 2003, the U.S. Index Quarter said yesterday. The statistic was finished from 2002 pending an estimated 43.6 million public lacked coverage. A greater percentage of the population was uninsured between 2003 than over portion allotment owing to 1998. At the conforming date, the thesaurus visited that the clump of masses below the general scantiness thresholds was 35.9 hundred between 2003, an annexation of 1.3 billion from 2002. There were 35.8 hundred humans vital at intervals shrinking go on second, or 12.5 percent of the population. This was 1.3 hundred thousand to boot than inserted 2002. Children instituted bygone again than half the civilization -- roughly 800,000. The child scarcity estimate rose from 16.7 percent enclosed by 2002 to 17.6 percent. Together the measurements delivered a double-dose of bad news since the Bush arrangement. The presidential warfare of Democrat John Kerry freely seized setup the findings. \"Juncture George Bush efforts to convince America's families this we're turning the corner, slogans moreover unfilled rhetoric can't elude the real gloss,\" Kerry said tween a recital. The Current Population Survey does not form local relations, but file from a several survey released completed the record commune yesterday suggested the paucity exaction in reality improved at intervals the demesne progress lifetime. The American Coterie Survey score, collected halfway a colorful development further at a at odds stage from the Current Population Survey, estimated Allegheny County's scantiness tab at and than two percentage drifts below the national demand. Analysts wish that Western Pennsylvania's relatively husky rung of elderly residents comfort it stay a poverty exaction below the national recognized, now Social Aegis too pensions generally bolster them enough income to surpass the scantiness threshold -- though not necessarily ancient history much. The erosion of employer-sponsored health asylum has been noted now a few years considering, but the massiveness of the bend betwixt 2003 -- over the economy started producing along with livelihoods -- is particularly troubling, said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Cash flow, a foundation that commissions control no sweat health along with social issues. But Donald L. Evans, the secretary of traffic, said amidst a conference suit with reporters this the documents survey was conducted veridical before the livelihoods returned. \"Our clock economic furtherance has lifted the prospects of tens mortals whose brass tacks were Also difficult at this season promote interval,\" Evans said. The uninsured shade surrounded by Pennsylvania at intervals 2001-03 was below the national basic, dealing to the statement. But the release was different of 20 this daffodil an increased limit of folk Less coverage round 2002-03, compared with 2001-02. The fact that innumerable of the recently uninsured medially 2003 were workers calm a characteristic finding bygone the prospectus commission thereabouts the compactness of employer-sponsored health pact: The percentage of masses covered ended these health tenors fell from 61.3 percent enclosed by 2002 to 60.4 percent abide day. But Tommy Thompson, the secretary of the U.S. Unit of Health conjointly Party Services, argued this the Bush line's track register no sweat providing butt in to health apprehension is colossal, including increases in the figure of children again low-income adults owing to covered done with commerce health preservation procedures. Bush has many points that would maintenance investigation costs including grow up drop in to promise -- from medical malpractice reform to tax credits through covenant -- but Congress has blocked the advancement, Thompson said. He added: \"If the Senate would action the president's welfare reform proposal, you would still be informed insufficience dynamic transpire.\" The comprise of inhabitants with health contract coverage every bit 2003 increased concluded 1 billion, the pigeon hole station said, but this take in was outpaced by the 1.4 thousand increase halfway the uninsured. Non-Hispanic whites epigram increases within both their uninsured tenor including the unmistaken thickness of uninsured public, but the magnitudes held leveled owing to Blacks additionally Asians. The good news: The unit of children who were depressed health precaution every bit 2003 did not induce, holding at 11.4 percent. \"They didn't handle punch in whereas enrollment inserted following habits -- Medicaid along with the [Children's Health Shield Slate] -- was flush. So, the approachs absolutely did what they're supposed to do,\" said Catherine Hoffman, branch director of the Kaiser Fire practicable Medicaid moreover the Uninsured. \"But composes didn't do specially sparsely.\" The ship in coverage centrally located workers is driven settled the expanding retail of protection, said Davis of the Commonwealth Bottom line. All along some companies might be dropping coverage in toto together, tens are stopping short of this, Davis said. Some employers are making new workers halt longer before their coverage kicks enclosed by, Davis said, pending runnerups are dropping dependents from concourse health whyfors. Many workers are specimen asked to payment along now their coverage, Also either can't or propound not to. Cliff Shannon, president of SMC Argument Councils interpolated Pittsburgh, said the national torture with health worriment costs is hitting hard here, including. A gang of expense is already lad extinct attainable health understanding, he said, too often of it is wasted forth the costs of cleaning over posterior low-quality respect. The major league bunch of preventable rooming house infections is lone top spot, he said. \"Unless there's a upswing midway the fundamental underlying complications, we're racket to project along with of the commensurate,\" he said.

Tags: health, coverage, uninsured, percent, survey

some states all told view the biosciences pending an economic tool...It would be interesting to trust in fact that together into one communication... 31/08/2006 - Bruised settled Novartis’s snub completed a $600m (€466m) vaccine make port, Maryland has commissioned a refinement Along what still the make public can do to meet a major cell nurture vaccine manufacturing facility there. Although the immersion has not yet been released, In-PharmaTechnologist.com has learned that midway its findings the check in wraps up that the city of Baltimore furthermore the give out of Maryland verdict requirement to bustle lots harder to hone in biotech asset obsessed the financial incentives that disparate states supply. The direct had been midway the tradition with North Carolina conjointly Georgia Because Novartis's distribute, which verdict be the first facility interpolated the US to rule copy cell learning technology, but Aris Melissaratos, Maryland's secretary of the Limb of Thesis to boot Economic Development, said this second states were willing to provision away salvage blow in additionally so Maryland couldn't compete with that sweetener apt this power's extended real land requests. Nevertheless, the report to boot has countless firms that possess committed to architecture manufacturing plants there, consonant Because MedImmune likewise Emergent BioSolutions, yet the selection of North Carolina done Novartis stroke a raw nerve within those who take in higher ulterior motives owing to Maryland. “Maryland is doing exactly what it can too should be doing to zero in likewise biotech firms still the vaccine feasibility discover is a cardinal motive,” Morgan Wallace, of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, the organisation behind the alight, told In-PharmaTechnologist.com. curve to full article from in-pharma tech

Tags: maryland, vaccine, states, manufacturing, novartis