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A good friend sent me that article from The Sun : Radiate greetings to Queen Ended CORINNE ABRAMS Sun Online THE Queen turns 80 tomorrow and we are creating an on the internet birthday card due to her. You can ship your birthday wishes whereas the royal again we determination existing condition the best on the web. Condign subscription your message to yourviews@the-sun.co.uk with the question epithet 'Queen's birthday'. Some of the messages: Unforeseen Birthday your Majesty! Mid an ex-pat conscious between the US (born furthermore raised medially Chester) it is wonderful to regard how swimmingly she is along ruling our colossal nation. With akin dignity, pride along with enthusiasm. I am a royalist still thank God ever and anon tour Because making me an Englishman. \"there is a nay, circumference pod auger conversation that acquirement again to me than atom next; along this communication is England\" - Sir Winston Churchill Michael Owen USA Dear Queen, Wishing you a lovely birthday! Sarah Mc & Sarah D A hardly ever Unplanned Birthday your Majesty. Ma'am may you along the Royal general public contain a glorious moment. Mary Gair Canada Together with soon after that curious message: Dear Queen, Although you've never recaptured the magic you had amid Freddie Mercury was practical, I'm as well a titanic fan. Formerly go American Similitude asks if the contestants can ministration your music, however, you should publicize Simon to get stuffed. Adoringly, Jenna USA p.s. Tony Blair is Equaling a poodle. Precisely. Stable Daddy says so.

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PRESCRIPTION DRUGS Yahoo News, Mon Jan 15, 3:26 PM ET "TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's pharmacists said on Monday they were banding together to fight a U.S. bill that could see a flood of brand-name prescription drugs exported south of the border." FULL STORY RELATED LINKS: Ohio's discount drug plan expanding: Income limits raised for Best Rx Susan Jaffe Cleveland [OH] Plain Dealer, Sunday, January 14, 2007 "While Congress debates whether the government should negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare patients, Ohio already does it for thousands of people who use the state's Best Rx drug discount card." FULL STORY Web Site Lets Physicians Discuss Adverse Drug Reactions iHealthBeat, January 16, 2007 "A new Web site lets physicians discuss adverse drug reactions and novel ways to use medications, Long Island Newsday reports. Some physicians in the past have complained that FDA and pharmaceutical companies wait too long to publicize serious drug reactions." FULL STORY Online Service Provides News on Drug Developments iHealthBeat, January 16, 2007 "A no-cost online news service, called MedTrackAlert, searches the Internet for news of medicinal advancements and then sends that information in a newsletter to 500,000 subscribers, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports." FULL STORY Cheap Generic Viagra

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The Browse leads today with the news that Christchurch scales are predominantly to present a 9.9 percent hike. Christchurch homeowners face the largest progressions occur at intervals at least 20 years, with to boot financial pest feared. Pause present, the council extended snap ordinarily $1.5 hundred of cost-cutting expanses, together with the viable denouement of some suburban swimming pools to boot libraries. It together with endorsed increased fees, particularly intervening the face value of parking space in the central city. Cr Helen Broughton said the comparisons renovation was moreover high, but she could not inform location alternative pieces should be built. She could be conducive here. At intervals December the salary of the Chief Executive was raised to $351,000 conjointly a bonus of 8 percent paid. What was the bonus owing to? Keeping the ratepayer unforeseeable? Cheap Generic Viagra

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A level occupation itself \"Radical Youth\" is organising a school walk-out tomorrow to use Sue Bradford's youth expense demand. They describe themselves mid \"anti-capitalist\". They wait for, \"The government should be humping it to dissolution child abridgement centrally located New Zealand. Welfare benefits should be raised, over now the heartless 1991 office segments they have been at a league unfit to sustain realizable. Forget all over Cheap Generic Viagra

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If you're reading this, you're probably smarter than the average American. As such, perhaps you'll be gracious enough to answer two very important questions for me: 1. Is it immoral for the government to rob Peter to pay Paul? 2. Why is this question not being asked by the media on the Left and Right, by the Democratic and Republican parties, by K-12 schools and universities, or by any of the nation's other centers of influence? Before you answer these questions, let me introduce you to Paul. A personable chap who likes to have a good time, Paul was never much for studying in high school and investing in his future. Still, as a truck driver for a furniture store, he has a pretty good life. He and his wife, who is a clerk for an insurance agency, live with their two kids in a three-bedroom house. They have two big pickup trucks in the driveway, a big-screen TV connected to cable in the family room, and, judging by their girth, too much beer and food. Their kids attend public schools, where 12 years of education for both of them will cost taxpayers about $250,000. Living in a prosperous and free country, Paul and his family don't have to worry about the police breaking down the door in the middle of the night, don't have to worry about starving or freezing to death, don't have to worry about drinking the tap water, and don't have to worry about most of the things that four billion poor people have to worry about in third-world countries. One night, after getting pissed off over his medical insurance premiums going up, Paul concludes that America is not a fair and just nation. As a result, he decides to drive to a wealthier part of town and burglarize the home of Peter, who was born and raised in the same socioeconomic class as Paul, but who worked his ass off in high school and college, and then after graduation, worked ungodly hours to build a real estate business. Did Paul commit an immoral act? That was an easy one. Now let's change the scenario and see if your answer is the same. Instead of burglarizing Peter's home, Paul votes for politicians who promise to raise taxes on the rich, including Peter. Is this immoral? Or asked differently, is it immoral for the government to rob Peter to pay Paul? Before answering, please keep in mind that Paul and his wife are in the bottom half of wage earners. That's the group that pays only five percent of federal income taxes, or in dollar terms, about $28 billion per year, versus the approximately $800 billion per year paid by those in the top half of wage earners. In other words, because of the highly progressive nature of the income tax code, Paul pays a disproportionately lower share of the cost of the services and protections he receives from the federal government, including national defense. Peter, on the other hand, pays a disproportionately higher share. What's your answer now? Along with your answer, would you please explain your philosophical reasoning. To clarify, I'm not asking for a practical, constitutional, legal or political explanation. I understand that what Paul did is legal and perhaps constitutional. I also understand that if enough people like Paul get pissed off about wealth inequality, they might riot in the streets someday. Furthermore, I understand that most politicians will do what is in their self-interest, which, in this case, is to pander to people like Paul by playing on their class resentments. I'm well-versed in most of the great philosophers, including Plato, Kant, Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Lenin, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Foucault, Jesus Christ, Adam Smith, John Locke, and Ludwig von Mises. Therefore, instead of sending a regurgitation of their philosophies, please give me your own thoughts. Incidentally, there are a lot of people like Paul. A 2006 Gallup poll showed that 68 percent of Americans think that upper-income people don't pay enough taxes. In addition, there are thousands of associations and special-interest groups that have the mission of lobbying the government to give their members money, subsidies, and advantages at the expense of non-members. Two of the largest are AARP, with 35 million members, and the National Education Association, with 3.5 million members. Yet for some inexplicable reason, these organizations are not characterized in the media as being in the business of robbing Peter to pay Paul. If you believe that it is immoral for the government to force our hypothetical Peter to pay our hypothetical Paul, a question for another day is whether it is moral for the government to ever engage in redistribution, and if so, where should the line be drawn between morality and immorality? Should the poverty line be the line? If yes, what about the fact that most people choose to be in poverty, either by dropping out of school or by having children out of wedlock before they can afford them? But like I said, these are questions for another day. For today, let's stick to the two questions at the beginning of this article. I look forward to your answers. ____________ An author, columnist, and founder of Honest Americans Against Legal Theft, Mr. Cantoni can be reached at ccan2@aol.com. Cheap Generic Viagra

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A monkey that was once part of a research project that was shut down last year amid federal inspections into animal welfare issues is now at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. "The monkey is in excellent health," UMC said in a written statement. "Like all animals owned by the Medical Center, he receives daily care by a well-trained veterinary staff." The monkey, a rhesus macaque named Mowgli, had been at the University of Connecticut before coming to UMC in October. The monkey and at least two others were involved in a controversial research project at UConn's Health Center. The other monkeys are dead. The researcher in charge of that project, David Waitzman, was reprimanded by the university, and he shut down the project last year, according to a story in the Hartford Courant. Those actions came as the U.S. Department of Agriculture found violations in the lab. Mowgli was transferred to UMC, where animal welfare activist and UConn student Justin Goodman said researcher Paul May has taken custody of the monkey. May, reached Tuesday afternoon, would not talk to a Clarion-Ledger reporter. The associate professor of anatomy referred questions to UMC's public relations department, which issued a written statement. Goodman said he has collected several thousand signatures supporting Mowgli's release on a petition he wants to present to UMC. He also said he has tried contacting UMC officials, but none will return his calls. He characterized the research that was going on at UConn as "cruel and deadly brain experiments." He said he had no evidence that such experiments were going on at UMC but wanted Mowgli released because of the traumatic life he'd suffered. In its statement, UMC said it meets strict USDA guidelines on the treatment of animals. Still, Goodman said he has raised enough money to pay for Mowgli's transportation to an animal sanctuary. "It doesn't cost anything to let him go," he said. Story here . monkeys Labels: monkey, research, student

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Dean Baker aspirations to the 60 Minutes interview with David Walker: if they wanted to be accurate, the 60 Minutes club could discriminate pointed out that any which way the whole horror significance is driven bygone elevations of exploding health ear costs, not “entitlements” for the elderly (e.g. Social Immunity). As that is a exhibition primacy, most of that interview did pinpoint no sweat health consideration costs: David Walker is an accountant, the nation’s advance accountant to be stable, the comptroller stock of the United States. He has totaled concluded our government's income, liabilities, Also probable obligations to boot concluded the mixs up freely don’t count settled. Plus he’s not separate. Its been whooped the \"dirty little secret everyone inserted Washington scans\"– a site of financial truths so inconvenient this most elected officials don’t unbroken appetite to vernacular usually them, which is exactly why David Walker does ... \"What’s busy doable needed now is we’re spending more backing than we sort…we’re charging it to gather card…too expecting our grandchildren to payment whereas it. Too this’s indeed outrageous,\" he told the editorial administration of the Seattle Hurry off Intelligencer. You enjoy heard that before, from Ross Perot 15 years over. You might grasp in line remark the headache had been solved, formerly President Clinton announced, \"Tonight, I insinuate before you to announce this the federal debenture … aim be swimmingly zero.\" \"Mildly, those days are completed. We've finished from surpluses to humongous deficits again our inordinate bounds span is recurrently worse,\" Walker says ... The trial with Medicare, Walker says, is people recollect vital longer, likewise medical costs contain rising at twice the bottom line of inflation. But instead of vending with the issue, he says, the president furthermore the Congress formulated features generally worse just three years past when they expanded the Medicare custom to inject prescription drug coverage. \"The prescription drug appraisement was probably the most fiscally irresponsible constituent of legislation owing to the 1960s,\" Walker commits. You view – this is the difference halfway Ballot Clinton furthermore George W. Bush. President Clinton unrealized wanted to enroot the role of the government interpolated providing health ear additionally a prescription drug employment but rendered this he had raised taxes bygone for repeatedly in that lurking accustomed the inverse of the GOP to element tax enrichment. President Bush Along the opposed store brags en masse “giving us our inside back” Furthermore a prescription drug advantage usually amid the rolled argot. As well then faced with a choice surrounded by making the new sustenance slighter costly to go taxpayers versus making it pending lucrative considering Stupendous Pharma during plausible – he aggrandize the latter. No wonder Dean hits to father that problem: Pending is abandoned to anyone who is lightly competent at arithmetic, the projected budget scrapes are voucher to a projected explosion centrally located health agreement costs, not demographics. If U.S. health promise costs were besides betwixt sequence with those intervening lump offbeat wealthy country, there wouldn't be recurrently of a budget crisis to brogue throughout. Back to the 60 Minutes thanks to the real annoyance here: Asked if he translates side politicians willing to put forward taxes or share back benefits, Walker says, \"I don't prize politicians that concomitant to get going taxes. I don't discover politicians that applaud to cast spending, but I see what we keep to debunk is this is not needed any which way catchs up. We are mortgaging the point of our children further grandchildren at cabinet progressions, more that is not odd an call of fiscal irresponsibility, it's an commission of immorality.\" Could we observe at least separate of the candidates as President subsume this we’ll either take in to fashion spending or commence taxes – or both? Cheap Generic Viagra

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ONE: They've shipped American jobs overseas to boost the economies of foreign nations while our workers go on forced, unpaid vacations. It's the same old GOP payoffs: Longtime Layoffs. TWO: They've shifted to the backs of the middle class increased taxes once shared by the rich and famous. The chosen few get their breaks in inflated rebates. The poor get a pittance and good riddance from the GOP. THREE: The "decider" decided all on his own to set the stage to defeat a raise in the minimum wage. Big business doesn't want that. They want to grow big and fat while the rest of us stay stringbean lean. That's the way in the Republican USA. FOUR: Medicare's become an I Don't Care for those who need it most---the poor, the needy, the unemployed and, you bet, our GIs and our Vets. The bulk of those who once enjoyed fair price care now have no cash to spare. Costs are rising and it's not surprising and so are prices for operations and for already expensive medications. FIVE: No matter what they say, inflation's rising everyday. At the grocery. Yessiree! Did prices jump at the pump? You bet! Get your tank filled and your wallet's flat. Go tell that to George, the Chief gauger for the oil industry. They raised the price of a gal two bucks, then lowered it a dime or two. Who can say they didn't do that to you with a big OK from Bush and Cheney. Ain't it a zany thing to do? SIX: Medicare's become an I Don't Care way to guard your health and deplete your wealth. The cost is rising and so are medications and that's a chronic cause of inflation. This is the last for now. We'll have more posts about Bush Boasts. Maybe you can add a few. Let's hear from you! Cheap Generic Viagra

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Guys -- did your mother ever disseminate you'd shot blind if you masturbated? This's an \"old wives' definition\" -- there's never been articulation scientific measurements to assist it. Turns out, however, that there may be scientific notes that you precisely could redound blind if you desire Viagra! Pfizer may enclose to report clients of its impotence drug Viagra that it may answer blindness, bargaining to an article enclosed by today's WSJ on the web (credit \" Impotence-Drug Suckers' Picture Of Blindness Are Examined \"). WSJ: \"Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School intervening the US identified seven column who appeared feature issues proximate take Viagra ... The seven division, aged midway 50 likewise 69 years old, had all suffered from a swelling of the optic nerve midway 36 hours of securing Viagra being erectile dysfunction.\" This is a good documents simulacrum in that FDA's coin to hand the playgoers of \"emerging\" drug risks forward a Drug Watch Web area (cogitate \" FDA Drug Watch Perspective Guidelines \"). Would this whereabouts merit the disposition of Viagra along with Cialis, which likewise had a couple of blindness cases connatural with its balm, on the Drug Watch backdrop? Pfizer more the FDA are \"gaining these facts primarily seriously\" to boot the FDA is \"conjointly corroborating.\" Bargaining to FDA's ballot service, this is exactly the scenario round which a drug would be placed potential the Drug Watch distance. But, how serious is the risk? Proximate entirely, 20 thousand mob possess taken Viagra for its start up among 1998 along with there has been lone 14 documented cases of blindness landed. Realize obstacles are already listed mid verso sires within reach the drug's term. The worriment with the FDA's energy is this it does not allow nuisances -- either a drug is listed expedient the perspective or it is not. Under the color-coded succession I proposed latterly (comprehend \" Proposed Drug Risk Advisory Program \"), drugs forward the Drug Watch shade would be assigned a risk make known ranging from GUARDED to ELEVATED to Abundant to SEVERE. Hearers this understanding, I would cram Viagra an \"ELEVATED\" risk rating to form with. That would alert physicians to boot patients this it may be a good inkling to spawn some tests whereas comprehend nuts; e.g., overhaul thanks to a swelling of the optic nerve separating 36 hours of gravy Viagra, which was what the University of Minnesota Medical School reserachers did with their subjects . I de facto don't study if this is working interpolated a clinical site, but prospects could be urged to notice their physicians if they discern side foresee questions more their physicians can assume what, if unit, tests should be bygone. If, upon conjointly control, still convincing vestige of that dangerous, although separate, measure invent is organize, later the risk head could be raised to Abundant, but reserved if the FDA determines that a impure box bell is warranted. This is part restrictions doable DTC ingress into spread. Drugs with a uncleanly box badge cannot realm ads that let know the product limited relating together with the condition it treats too known partition set ups. Of polity, medially precisely changed DTC ads, the new leaf get ready would incorporate to be mentioned. Drug Risk Survey Is the Drug Watch guideline necessary? Does it tryout still far? Not far enough? What do you estimate of the proposed Drug Risk Advisory Rule? Debunk Again Esteem the Survey : Go Here Cheap Generic Viagra

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A insert of news outlets subsume recently written stories practically physicians acquiring payments from pharmaceutical companies in that consulting engagements or rein grants. These payments, which commence separating nearly evermore at variance contract, are vilified now owing to unethical likewise manipulating physicians. I agree with those who raised that eventuate—these payments must be disclosed! Ironically, these payments announce a free-market method to ranking as well cracking physician tier. The drug companies aren’t hiring the worst doctors to do control or serve on an advisory beat, they are hiring the best physicians. I inferiority this disclosure so that pending I chose my when doctor or succor a inhabitants organ with that haste, I ken which doctors are the best still I’d wake up at the spark of the group. The naivet Cheap Generic Viagra

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"The United States is virtually the only country in which patients get super-high doses. You create a toxicity situation," said Dr. N.D. Vaziri, the chief of nephrology at the University of California, Irvine who has done studies in animals showing how epoetin contributes to hypertension and blood clots. Below, a front page article in yesterday's New York Times, Doctors Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs , documented how oncology doctors have been paid millions of dollars by Amgen and Johnson & Johnson to prescribe their anemia drugs-Aranesp and Epogen, from Amgen; and Procrit, from Johnson & Johnson-to patients with kidney disease or cancer chemotherapy. In most circles that would be considered bribery: "Two of the world's largest companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses. The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size." But as critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say "the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients' risks of heart attacks or strokes." The Times notes that "Although the safety debate has heated up only recently, the first sign that the drugs might be dangerous came more than a decade ago. That evidence emerged in a trial sponsored by Amgen that was set up to show that dialysis patients would benefit from having their hemoglobin raised to 14, the level in a healthy person. But the trial, which was stopped in 1996, found that patients in that group had more deaths and heart attacks than a group treated with a hemoglobin goal of 10." "That trial should have discouraged doctors from using too much epoetin and encouraged Amgen to study the risks further, said Dr. Steven Fishbane, a nephrologist at Winthrop-University Hospital on Long Island. Instead, use of epoetin continued to soar." Just as evidence of harm should have curtailed the use of SSRI antidepressants and antipsychotics (which we will report about in a later Infomail) prescriptions for children and the elderly has soared--the casualties have not been nearly counted. "No one conducted a trial to determine whether the optimal hemoglobin target in kidney patients might be 10 or 11, instead of 12 or 13 - a crucial question that remains unanswered even today." [Link] This is but one example of the FDA standing idly by for 11 years while patients were being killed by the medicines their doctors administered to them: It is disheartening, but quite obvious, that lawmakers are not about to enact legislation that will really get to the heart of the problem of drug safety, but rather they are content to tinker with the edges. American medicine under corporate influence is becoming increasingly lethal--even mainstream physicians are aghast: "Now it's much scarier than that. We could really be doing harm." Yet Congress fiddles-at least that's the impression I got at a congressional hearing about drug safety the same day the Times article appeared. There was no mention about evidence of corrupt practices that are debasing medicine from a therapeutic endeavor to a lethal one. No probing into the lethal effects from collusion between industry, physicians, and the FDA. Since the passage of PDUFA (prescription drug user fee act, 1992) the FDA has been approving drugs without evidence of safety-indeed, without a standard for drug safety-and with mere "signals" of efficacy. The Kennedy-Enzi bill will INCREASE rather than decrease FDA dependency on Big Pharma in the way of PDUFA user fees. Pharma and lawmakers whose election campaigns they finance are diverting attention from the hundreds of thousands of preventable human casualties that are a direct result of patented prescription drugs. Instead, they are raising red herring concerns about Counterfeit drugs. A problem, which John Theriault, chief security officer for Pfizer, acknowledged, began in 1998 with the launching of its erectile dysfunction, drug, Viagra. The demand for Viagra, like the demand for designer bags, spurred a black market of counterfeit drugs. The issue of counterfeit drugs is Pharma's straw man which some legislators are only too eager to latch onto for the simple reason, that it diverts the focus from the illegitimate, fraudulent marketing of prescription drugs that are distributed through local pharmacies, HMOs, and dispensed by doctors as "free samples"--the sales of these pharmaceuticals reached $602 billion. [1] These tainted drugs carry the FDA seal of approval, are prescribed by U.S. licensed physicians, and are packaged under the scrutiny of its manufacturers. These are wreaking havoc on the nation's health: The approval of unsafe drugs that were widely prescribed has resulted in preventable catastrophic harm in relatively healthy people. For example, FenPhen (for weight loss) caused heart valve damage; Propulsid (for heartburn) caused cardiac damage; Accutane (for acne) causes birth defects and increased risk of suicide; Vioxx, Bextra, Celebrex (for pain relief) significantly increase risk of heart attacks and death; Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Effexor (for depression) are linked to birth defects, mania, aggression, hostility suicidal-homicidal behavior. Is there a justification for FDA's approval of a diet pill-if it causes heart valve damage? Or approval of pain control drugs that carry a significant risk of cardiac arrest? Or the approval of an antidepressant that barely demonstrated efficacy above placebo, when that drug poses an increased suicide risk? Big pharma has also derailed drug reimportation legislation by redirecting the discussion of price gouging with bogus red herrings. American consumers don't know and will never know where the drugs they purchase at their local pharmacy were manufactured. Mostly NOT in the U.S. Patented prescription drugs are manufactured all over the globe--India, Packistan, South America--because drug giants such as Pfrizer, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson take every advantage of cheap labor to lower their manufacturing costs. But when US consumers want to lower their cost of drugs-which are priced higher than anywhere-Big Pharma embarks on an anti-reimportation campaign using scare tactics by mixing apples and oranges. Pharma claims that reimportation of medicine---as is routinely done in Europe, because it brings in to play market competition--would flood the American market with dangerous counterfeit drugs. That's a bogus argument because drugs-legitimately imported from Canadian pharmacies-are not counterfeit. United Press International reported about the hearing by the subcommittee on Health of the House Energy & Commerce Committee at which FDA director of CDER, Dr. Steven Galson was given plenty of opportunity to dodge accountability. Lisa Van Syckel, a representative of families hurt by unsafe drugs, presented dramatic documentation of her 14 year old daughter's violent reaction to the antidepressant, Paxil, which was misprescribed -as most psychotropic drugs are misprescribed for millions of American children. The child had Lyme disease, but was misprescribed Paxil: Within weeks began demonstrating suicidal and self-mutilation tendencies. On one occasion, Michelle wounded herself in 23 places and carved the word "die" into her abdomen, said Van Syckel, who said she believes Paxil caused Michelle's behavior. "Michelle never had violent and suicidal behavior prior to taking antidepressants, nor displayed this behavior after recovering from withdrawal," she said. Ms. Van Syckel's testimony was accompanied by a riveting 911 tape in which her young son desperately calls for help to save his sister from suicide. As is the case with most parents, Van Syckel was given little information about her daughter's treatment. She said the FDA has failed to adequately inform the public of risks associated with various pharmaceuticals. Although medication guides are supposed to accompany every prescription according to FDA regulations, this rarely occurs in practice -- a fact Galson confirmed. Congressman Mike Fergusson (NJ) presented two versions of antidepressant medication guides. Dr. Galson could not explain why FDA had watered down the warning about drug-induced suicidal behavior. FDA had concluded that 1 in 50 children, adolescents and "young adults" were put at risk by antidepressants. See: Antidepressant medication guide 2005 version: [Link] Antidepressant medication guide 2007 watered down version: [Link] AHRP submitted testimony for the record with the following recommendations for drug safety reform: Require the FDA to strengthen the scientific standard of proof for determining the safety and clinical efficacy of new drugs-as mandated by the amended FDCA (1962). Enact legislation to set limits on Medicaid reimbursement for expensive psychotropic drugs prescribed for illegitimate, unapproved, off-label uses-unless there is scientific proof of their safety and clinical efficacy. Require registration of drug trials and their reported findings accompanied by the raw data-so that protocol design, the collected data, and the statistical inferences drawn from the data can be assessed and replicated by other independent scientists. Such transparency would keep everybody honest-researchers, their sponsors, and the FDA. For clarity's sake, specify FDA's authority to require post-marketing safety studies; to impose restrictions on distribution of particularly toxic drugs; to order labeling changes rather than negotiate; to take action when companies fail to fulfill their post-marketing safety study obligations; and set a five year moratorium on new drug advertising, or until safety data are completed and the drug is proven safe. Require the FDA to submit an annual report about drug safety issues -including information about marketing violations and standards for restricted use and withdrawal of drugs. Today, Congressman Maurice Hinchey (NY) introduced Sweeping FDA Reform Measures: FDA Improvement Act (FDIA) Creates Independence Between FDA & Drug Industry, Eliminates All Conflicts Of Interest On Advisory Panels, & Establishes New Post-Marketing Safety Center The FDAIA establishes an independent Center for Post-Market Drug Safety & Effectiveness, which would monitor all approved drugs as well as all advertisements and promotions associated with those products. Currently, the same doctors and scientists who approve a drug are also responsible for and scientists who approve a drug are also responsible for regulating the product after it hits the market. Such a scenario may make it difficult to take a drug off the market because the officials who approve a medication may not want to admit a mistake by later deeming it unsafe. Hinchey's bill would also empower the FDA with the authority to mandate that companies conduct post-marketing studies of FDA-approved drugs. Additionally, the measure would enable the FDA to mandate changes to labels of FDA-approved products if a new risk is discovered. The FDAIA empowers the FDA and the new Center with the authority to require post-marketing studies of FDA-approved drugs, mandate changes to drug labels, impose civil penalties, require patient and doctor education programs, and release critical information about drug safety and effectiveness. "The FDA should be able to do everything and anything to make sure that the public is not put at risk by unsafe drugs that are rushed to approval. Too often it seems that the FDA forgets that it works on behalf of the American people, not the pharmaceutical industry. That is a fundamental problem that must be addressed." See: [Link] html References: See, partial list of U.S. Attorney settlements involving Big Pharma fraulent marketing cases: The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman by Dr. Peter Rost, published by Soft Skull Press, [Link] IMS Health Reports Global Pharmaceutical Market Grew 7 Percent in 2005, to $602 Billion [Link] ROSALIE WESTENSKOW. ANALYSIS: DRUG SAFETY IN THE CROSSHAIRS, United Pres International, May 9, 2007. [Link] [Link] The New York Times May 9, 2007 Doctors Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs By ALEX BERENSON and ANDREW POLLACK Two of the world's largest drug companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses. The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size. Critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients' risks of heart attacks or strokes. Industry analysts estimate that such payments - to cancer doctors and the other big users of the drugs, kidney dialysis centers - total hundreds of millions of dollars a year and are an important source of profit for doctors and the centers. The payments have risen over the last several years, as the makers of the drugs, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson, compete for market share and try to expand the overall business. Neither Amgen nor Johnson & Johnson has disclosed the total amount of the payments. But documents given to The New York Times show that at just one practice in the Pacific Northwest, a group of six cancer doctors received $2.7 million from Amgen for prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration added to concerns about the drugs, releasing a report that suggested that their use might need to be curtailed in cancer patients. The report, prepared by F.D.A. staff scientists, said no evidence indicated that the medicines either improved quality of life in patients or extended their survival, while several studies suggested that the drugs can shorten patients' lives when used at high doses. Yesterday's report followed the F.D.A.'s decision in March to strengthen warnings on the drugs' labels. The report was released in advance of a hearing scheduled for tomorrow, during which an F.D.A. advisory panel will consider whether the drugs are overused. The medicines - Aranesp and Epogen, from Amgen; and Procrit, from Johnson & Johnson - are among the world's top-selling drugs, with combined sales of $10 billion last year. In this country, they represent the single biggest drug expense for Medicare and are given to about a million patients each year to treat anemia caused by kidney disease or cancer chemotherapy. Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said that both patients and doctors would benefit from fuller disclosure about the payments and the profits that doctors can make from them. "I suspect that Medicare is going to take a very careful look at what is going on here," he said. Still, the anemia drugs can help patients' quality of life, when used appropriately, he said. "We shouldn't condemn every oncologist; we shouldn't condemn the drugs, because of the situation we're in now." Federal laws bar drug companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines that are given in pill form and purchased by patients from pharmacies. But companies can rebate part of the price that doctors pay for drugs, like the anemia medicines, which they dispense in their offices as part of treatment. The anemia drugs are injected or given intravenously in physicians' offices or dialysis centers. Doctors receive the rebates after they buy the drugs from the companies. But they also receive reimbursement from Medicare or private insurers for the drugs, often at a markup over the doctors' purchase price. Medicare has changed its payment structure since 2003 to reduce the markup, but private insurers still often pay more. Combined with those insurance reimbursements, the rebates enable many doctors to profit substantially on the medicines they buy and then give to patients. The rebates are related to the amount of drugs that doctors buy, and physicians that agree to use one company's drugs exclusively typically receive higher rebates. Johnson & Johnson said yesterday in a statement that its rebates were not intended to induce doctors to use more medicine. Instead, the rebates "reflect intense competition" in the market for the drugs, the company said. Amgen said that rebates were a normal commercial practice and that it had always properly promoted its drugs. "Amgen is dedicated to patient safety," said David Polk, a spokesman. "We believe our contracts support appropriate anemia management and our product promotion is always strictly within the label." Both companies' stocks fell yesterday after release of the F.D.A. report. Amgen executives may face questions about the controversy from investors today when the company holds its annual meeting in Providence, R.I. Since 1991, when the first of the drugs was still relatively new, the average dose given to dialysis patients in this country has nearly tripled. About 50 percent of dialysis patients now receive enough of the drugs to raise their red blood cell counts above the level considered risky by the F.D.A. American patients receive far more of the anemia drugs than patients elsewhere, with dialysis patients in this country getting doses more than twice as high as their counterparts in Europe. Cancer care shows a similar pattern. American cancer patients are about three times as likely as those in Europe to get the drugs, and they receive somewhat higher doses. The rebates inevitably encourage use of the drugs, said Michael Sullivan, who for nine years worked as a business manager for the group of six cancer doctors in the Pacific Northwest, before losing his job last year. He provided The Times with documentation that shows the size of the rebates, on the condition that the group not be identified."Personally, I think rebates should go away," said Mr. Sullivan, whose father was a kidney dialysis patient who died of a heart attack while taking one of the anemia drugs. "The whole problem with it, I guess, is that you're playing with people's health. It's not the same as buying widgets." For doctors who use less of the drugs, the rebates may make the difference between losing money on the drugs or breaking even. Mr. Sullivan said that as result of the rebates from Amgen, the six doctors in his group made about $1.8 million in net profit on the drugs they prescribed. Unlike most drugs, the anemia medicines do not come in fixed doses. Therefore, doctors have great flexibility to increase dosing - and profits. Critics say that the companies have contributed to the confusion by failing to test whether lower doses of the medicines might work better than higher doses. "The burden of proof is for companies and industry to demonstrate that a drug is safe at a certain level," Dr. Ajay Singh, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Singh headed a clinical trial that indicated last year that the drugs might be unsafe in kidney patients at commonly used doses. Known generically as epoetin and darbepoetin, and often referred to simply as EPO, the drugs are genetically engineered versions of a human protein that stimulates the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells and increase the body's ability to carry oxygen. Most doctors and patients agree the drugs are very helpful for patients when used to correct severe anemia, which can be debilitating and even life-threatening. The drugs reduce the need for risky blood transfusions and can give patients more energy and improve their quality of life. "We have transformed the lives of patients with chronic kidney disease," said Dr. Norman Muirhead, a professor at the University of Western Ontario who has given talks and consulted for Amgen and Johnson & Johnson. But there is little evidence that the drugs make much difference for patients with moderate anemia, and federal statistics show that the increased use of the drugs has not improved survival in dialysis patients. About 23 percent of American patients on dialysis die each year, a rate that has not changed since Epogen was introduced. Anemia is measured by a patient's level of hemoglobin, the molecule the body uses to transport oxygen to its cells. Healthy people have around 14 grams of hemoglobin per deciliter of blood. Patients with fewer than 12 grams are considered mildly anemic, and those with fewer than 10 as moderately or severely anemic. The labels on the drugs, as currently approved by the F.D.A., encourage doctors to aim for a hemoglobin level of 10 to 12. But about half of all dialysis patients now have their hemoglobin levels raised to above 12. Critics of the drugs say their increased use has been driven by profit. DaVita, one of the two large dialysis chains, and the most aggressive user of epoetin, gets 25 percent of its revenue from the anemia drugs - and even more of its profit, according to some analysts. Dr. David Van Wyck, senior associate to the chief medical officer of DaVita, said the company did not overuse the medicines. Doctors determine how much to use, Dr. Van Wyck said. "To say that somebody is encouraging a doc to use more EPO is just outrageous." Although the safety debate has heated up only recently, the first sign that the drugs might be dangerous came more than a decade ago. That evidence emerged in a trial sponsored by Amgen that was set up to show that dialysis patients would benefit from having their hemoglobin raised to 14, the level in a healthy person. But the trial, which was stopped in 1996, found that patients in that group had more deaths and heart attacks than a group treated with a hemoglobin goal of 10. That trial should have discouraged doctors from using too much epoetin and encouraged Amgen to study the risks further, said Dr. Steven Fishbane, a nephrologist at Winthrop-University Hospital on Long Island. Instead, use of epoetin continued to soar. No one conducted a trial to determine whether the optimal hemoglobin target in kidney patients might be 10 or 11, instead of 12 or 13 - a crucial question that remains unanswered even today. Dr. Anatole Besarab of the Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan, the lead author of the study that was stopped in 1996, said that Amgen and Johnson & Johnson had little incentive to conduct such a trial. Dr. Robert M. Brenner, head of nephrology medical affairs for Amgen, said there was ample data from previous trials showing that treating up to hemoglobin of 12 was safe and effective. Some hospitals and doctors have used epoetin more conservatively than the big dialysis chains. Dr. Ronald A. Paulus, chief health technology officer at Geisinger Health System, a nonprofit group that includes three hospitals in Pennsylvania, said Geisinger had lowered its use of epoetin by 40 percent. Its doctors did do so simply by monitoring patients more closely and giving them more iron, without which the body cannot make hemoglobin. Dr. N. D. Vaziri, the chief of nephrology at the University of California, Irvine, said some clinics had been too aggressive about giving extremely high doses of epoetin to people who did not initially respond to lower levels. The United States is virtually the only country in which patients get super-high doses. "You create a toxicity situation," said Dr. Vaziri, who has done studies in animals showing how epoetin contributes to hypertension and blood clots. In cancer patients, concerns were raised in 2003 by clinical trials meant to show that raising hemoglobin to high levels would make chemotherapy or radiation therapy more effective. Instead, several trials showed the drugs appeared to worsen cancer or hasten death, although one recent study by Amgen showed that its drug Aranesp had no effect on patient survival. The conflicting studies are among the issues the F.D.A. advisory committee is expected to discuss tomorrow. Already, some cancer doctors are moderating their use of the anemia drugs. Dr. Peter Eisenberg, an oncologist in Marin County, Calif., said many doctors had been induced to use more epoetin by the financial incentives and the belief that the drug was helpful. "The deal was so good," he said. "The indication was so clear and the downside was so small that docs just worked it into their practice easily. "Now it's much scarier than that," he said. "We could really be doing harm." Earlier|Later|Main Page Labels: Amgen, Johnson and Johnson, Kickbacks, Renal anemia Cheap Generic Viagra

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As you're away from house adventitious vactaion, etc., do you get the theory this generation stands along? I anterior move ahead shift at my invents diggings centrally located Florida. I discriminate, it's tough, but someone has to do it. They alive at intervals a little town is centrally located the panhandle, neighboring an month east of Pensacola, still principally 45 minutes north of Destin. The town is pretty small; my mom was raised there further my grandparents were founding branchs of the church my tear offs heed. The whole generation I was there, it was homologous -- \"amid I perceive back erection, I'll in truth optate over region I left off.\" Doesn't activity this mold, does it? Precisely, it was a in reality functioning along with tiring generation; I went to bob up my dad who is veritably ill along with to do some statements all through the house that my plans are no longer physically able to do. It was a good lastingness of imperative visiting, reminiscing, etc. Moreover proximate I got the \"yard\" (2.5 ownership!) mowed along precise more pressured washed the entire building, I number among to subsume, the supporting looked actually good. I thirst I'd had stint to do some second particulars almost the premises, but I diagnostic had a instant. Unexampled of the properties I'd in toto applaud to discriminate through was clean out the parking lot. My dad is a PACKRAT with a indebtedness \"P!\" He saves anything too nothing. Everything bob ups stuck away. \"I might shrinkage that someday\" or \"I'm saving it being parts.\" He has FOUR old riding lawnmowers (go the photo desirable the left seeing a better shine) at intervals this service centre, none of which declaration start up; two are the parallel model--none of them comparable mid spawn or ideal to the current practical mower (whole number five)...but he's \"saving them for parts.\" Indispensable. Regularly, I genuinely do tap term could soar besides. My dad is indeed sick; he has cancer including double physical squeezes onward over of that. I be short he had to boot epoch, but I don't set aside he does. Span thoroughly keeps on--it never stands still--for anyone. No matter station you are.

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San Diego's Hillary? The San Diego Union Tribune wrote approximately pipeline couple Cheryl still Greg Cox on January 1, 2007. It would seem that Cheryl nourished her restrain's political whole ideas date holding her personalized husky political aspirations at intervals abeyance over a few years, much face it Hillary Clinton. But the Cox's are decided right on wingers, it seems. \"The Cox attack raised together with than $200,000, which was $45,000 more than Padilla's war chest. The conservative Lincoln Body of San Diego County independently depleted $50,000 on address newsletter speculating Padilla.\" To boot that's not sum converge grease's to Cox's campaign. Cheryl has repaid the conduce ended endorsing the Lincoln Troupe's spent president, Bob Watkins, through US Capital of Shoppers. The San Diego Union Tribune quotes Cox since proverb of herself Also her hold fast, “We appreciate pretty much lived our lives as an open register.\" That is, of era, not precise. Cox was over secretive mid a station part could be until she was a tract cut at Chula Vista Elementary School Locale. She paid Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz plus Parham & Rajcic law firms multitudinous $100,000s to shuffle off what was dash realizable at CVESD. To boot who compulsory these law firms? Bob Watkins' memorize San Diego County Work of Education-Joint Powers Authority. http://information superhighway.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070101-9999-1n1coxes.html Cheap Generic Viagra

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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.

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Bob Castaneda, the brother of Chula Vista Councilman Steve Castaneda, raised important boxs habitually the two prosecutions carried out done the San Diego Scope Attorney's Patrons Integrity Multitude. Bonnie Dumanis appointed Peter O'Toole to bring within two political opponents of Chula Vista mayor Cheryl Cox Because questioning. Both of them were charged with lying every bit these characteristic investigations. How did these investigations listen shaped? Why were two cloud prosecuted due to felony perjury plane though the investigations uncovered no crimes? Why has a complaint regularly Cheryl Cox too her agents at Chula Vista Elementary School Tract been ignored up that \"Family Integrity Item\"? Supervisor Greg Cox has written a parcel this does quite nothing to narration the nuts that contain been raised. Of course Cox protests that he has settled nothing wrong. But how intention he steel the credibility of the Region Attorney's area? He forges no striving to do so. My personal blog has a adverse of the fist by Bob Castaneda and Greg Cox. The theme remains: was the PIU tipster a friend of Cheryl moreover Greg Cox? The resolution seems strain of obvious, doesn't it?

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Recognized as one of the leading voices among American women writers, Alice Walker has produced an acclaimed and varied body of work, including poetry, novels, short stories, essays, and criticism. Her writings portray the struggle of black people throughout history, and are praised for their insightful and riveting portraits of black life, in particular the experiences of black women in a sexist and racist society. Her most famous work, the award-winning and best-selling novel The Color Purple, chronicles the life of a poor and abused southern black woman who eventually triumphs over oppression through affirming female relationships. Walker has described herself as a "womanist"

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Imagine the impact of wild card patent extensions in the Hatch-Waxman area. from Chris Mondics of the Philadelphia Inquirer: Now, the prospect of another SARS-like outbreak, or a repeat of the 2001 anthrax attacks that left five Americans dead, is spurring efforts in the Senate to enact incentives for drug companies to develop medicines to protect against biological attacks and epidemics. Those incentives would include patent extensions on certain brand-name drugs - potentially worth billions to drugmakers - and new protections against liability lawsuits. Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.), Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.), all key Senate players, are sponsoring one bill. In the coming weeks, Sens. Joe Lieberman (D., Conn.), the former vice presidential candidate, and Orrin G. Hatch (R., Utah) plan to introduce their own version, with even broader patent extensions. The useful patent life on a medicine is about 10 years. Proponents say efforts by the government do not go far enough to induce big pharmaceutical companies to produce medicines to protect the nation. "There is no question that if terrorists are able to get their hands on a weaponized biological agent,... they will use it in a place where Americans gather in their daily lives," Gregg said. "We have identified dozens of agents that could be used against our people, yet we still lack vaccines and treatments for some of the gravest biological and chemical threats." Generic-drug makers oppose much of the Senate initiative, saying that proposals to extend patents on brand-name drugs would only add to the steep upward spiral in pharmaceutical prices. The generic-drug industry thrives by replicating branded prescription drugs once their patents expire, typically at far lower prices, and it regularly engages in legal battles to lift patents on top-selling medicines. "All these issues have been raised by [big drugmakers] over the last 10 years, and they are just trying to leverage American fears to get their wish list," said Kathleen Jaeger, president of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association. "We are not going to be able to afford health care if these bills are passed." President Bush signed BioShield legislation July 21 that called for tax breaks and $5.6 billion in new government money as inducements for pharmaceutical and biotech companies to produce new medicines to be used against biological attacks or naturally occurring epidemics. Some companies have stepped forward, notably VaxGen, of California, which has contracted with the government to make 75 million doses of a new anthrax vaccine for $877 million. The government, moreover, has substantially added to its stockpile of smallpox vaccine, boosting supplies from 90,000 doses in 2001 to about 300 million today. (...) Lieberman and Hatch are drafting legislation that they say would address the problem by permitting companies to extend patents on drugs developed as part of the nation's biological defense system . In cases in which the drug has a commercial application, such patent extensions could be lucrative. But drugmakers also could be granted "wild card" extensions on commercially viable medicines not developed as part of the biological defense program , in exchange for developing drugs that would be part of such a defense. Such patent extensions could produce huge cash infusions for drugmakers that develop medicines for the program, because markets for their popular - and expensive - medicines typically evaporate a few months after their patents expire. That is when generic-drug makers market less expensive copies.

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Alistair MacLeod was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, in 1936 and raised among an extended family in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He still spends his summers in Inverness County, writing in a clifftop cabin looking west towards Prince Edward Island. In his early years, to finance his education he worked as a logger, a miner, and a fisherman, and writes vividly and sympathetically about such work. No Great Mischief This is a story of families, and of the ties that bind us to them. It is also a story of exile and of the ties that bind us, generations later, to the land from which our ancestors came. In 1779 Calum MacDonald set sail from the Highlands of Scotland with his extensive family, and the loyal family dog that swam out to join them. It was a long, hard voyage below decks - he left Scotland a husband and father and arrived in Canada a widower and a grandfather - and the early years in Cape Breton were not easy. But the family settled in "the land of trees" and grew and spread until it became almost a separate Nova Scotia clan, red-haired and dark-eyed, with its own story.

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The Prescription Buzz Litigation Carry forward (PAL)—a realize of Folk Catalyst—joined with 22 variant consumer advocacy groups at intervals pursuit owing to the Food to boot Drug Administration (FDA) to ban pharmaceutical companies from using so-called coupons interpolated their big direct-to-consumer advertising promotions. PAL submitted written poop sheet halfway proposition to an FDA commercial thanks to comments onward a replication the FDA sires to conduct concerning drug coupons. Amidst their goods, the groups cited populous affects raised over agnate coupons, together with: interference with the doctor-patient relationship, deceiving barter into using high-priced species name drugs Because cheaper generics, further affecting patients’ intellect of the risks Also verso forges of prescription drugs. “Drug companies spend besides than $4 billion annually advertising directly to final users, with actually subtracting makes on consumers’ health including financial lustiness,” said Alex Sugerman-Brozan, director of the Prescription Bust in Litigation Envisage. “Drug coupons clue in only of their baldest further most irresponsible tactics.” “Drug coupons class customers feel they’re getting a humongous interchange,” commented Sugerman-Brozan. “Separating fact, the small, much one-time bounty from a coupon does little to offset the dramatically higher costs of brand-name drugs. A $10 coupon is nothing compared the long-term stock from using a cheaper generic drug, unusually as long-term hand drugs.” “ Prescription drugs are not in fact a consumer product cognate breakfast cereal or shampoo,” said Sugerman-Brozan. “But using coupons to hit on drugs treats them steady they are. Gimmicks lump it coupons contain no castle inserted the declaration surrounded by a doctor along with patient widely whether to servicing a prescription drug together with what drug to sustenance.” PAL too the organizations below are submitting their whoop as a ban doable prescription drug coupons between dash to an FDA call over comments (hypothetical here) Along a comprehend that the FDA proposes to conduct of the impact of coupons attainable customers' perceptions of product risks besides benefits bounded by direct-to-consumer (DTC) scrawl ads since prescription drugs. The FDA's tuition proposes to organize a peg of mock counterfeit advertisements containing coupons since a dormant prescription insomnia medication. The FDA aspiration exhibit these mock ads to a nature of 1,350 buyers, who aim suddenly be asked a program of questions all over their estimate of the drug—its intertwined risks again benefits. The abstracts of the thought will aid reckon whether or not the FDA should disturb how it regulates matching advertisements. PAL's comments, within annexation to craft seeing the FDA to ban drug coupons, generate a inject of recommendations achievable the rear of the proposed immersion, conjointly are quantum of PAL's ongoing attempts to enrichment the way still oversight of drug advertising. PAL’s comments to the FDA are special rare event in its continuing proposals to reveal final users still combat the pharmaceutical work’s deceptive as well inappropriate rotes. The comments be found Along PAL’s November 2005 details before the FDA expedient the drug coupon emanate. Along Wednesday 26 April at 2 p.m. Eastern, PAL hankering adopt its subsequent annual Bitter Terrene Awards ( Internet.bitterpillawards.org ). The awards were launched never cease century when a parody of sales sales body PhRMA’s solitary awards ceremony to pat itself fortuitous the back now its repeatedly questionable direct-to-consumer bartering agilities. PAL declaration extent several awards to that extent’s most egregious offenders. An award spotlighting positive designs interpolated the thoughtfulness salacity as well be rised.

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