ppp 01-14-08

Quote of the day: The only thing that makes life possible is permanent,

intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
Ursula K. LeGuin

A “low impact exercise system” was high on my wife’s Christmas list. Having heard from my sons how much fun they had with a Wii system while actually working up a sweat. For Christmas I decided to give my a Wii system. Well that was easier said than done. I had passed on one in July because I didn’t know exactly how difficult procurement would be. In December I started visiting Best Buy and Target on a daily basis. I would hear, “We had them yesterday morning for 2 hours”, “Our last shipment was a week ago”, or “We were told that we will not get any until after Christmas”. About December 15^th the one fellow at Best Buy started to recognize me and made the extra effort to look in the computer system for .any inventory. He found 46 of them in a store in St. Cloud, MN; about 90 minute drive each way. I had only about 60 minutes before starting work and the store would be closed 60 minutes after I was to leave work. No dice. The closest that I came to full success was 45 minutes on December 20^th.

However, I was luck enough to find a nunchuk accessory to put under the tree but no system. Having been in both BB and Target every day of December (except the 25^th) by the end of December I had enlisted friends, family and co-workers in my quest and I was starting to believe that I would never see one. On the last day of the year my son called from Target asking if I had found one and whether to buy the one he had stumbled across.

Due to serendipity I was able to give my bride her system to provide some low impact exercise. Pharmaceutical companies benefit equally from serendipity, Viagra was one example: researchers were looking for another antihypertensive but the drug missed its goal. When the researchers asked for the drug supplies back for the subjects they met with resistance. The men sheepishly admitted to a side effect that forever changed direct to consumer advertising. I was an intern at the Minneapolis VA where a cardiologist noticed that patients given IV minoxidil for blood pressure control were growing hair all over their bodies. Rogaine was the resulting product. For all of the purposeful and directed research into drugs there is still plenty of room for “luck”. In reality it was not luck that brought these to chemical entities into successful commercial product but astute observation and thinking outside of the box. Pay attention to things around you and look for new or unusual applications. Be persistant…you just never know what might happen.

ps. Best answer this week to the question "How are you?" was "Glad to be here" (a janitor at the hospital)

pps. Occasionally, some of the links require FREE registration.... I'm sure you can handle THAT slight inconvenience.

Autism is not from vaccine preservatives. Study showed that autism rates actually rose after the mercurial preservative was removed from vaccines. Autism can be reliably diagnosed by age 3 years. Parents who used this excuse to explain why their children were affected will have to look for something else or accept reality and move forward.

2) Provider programmer plants potentially pernicious programming plum: prison provided

A MEDCO systems analyst planted a “logic bomb” in the system software which potentially could have wiped out patient data and disrupted pharmacists’ ability to fill prescriptions or check drug-drug interactions. 4 years without a computer and a fine of $81,000 may discourage other hackers.

While the bone, joint, muscle pain warnings are already on the labels, more and more people are reporting joint pain that resolves after stopping the drugs. Drug brand names include Actonel, Aredia, Boniva, Didronel, Fosamax, Reclast, Skelid, and Zometa.

Pfizer off the hook on most Celebrex lawsuits. Judge rules that insufficient data exists to support claims that Celebrex caused cardiovascular events.

5) Congressional critter critiques contraband containing compounded concoctions

Compounding menopausal hormone therapy providers receive warning letters. Compounding pharmacies are making compounded hormonal therapy found to contain unapproved drugs and unfounded claims. They are told to shape up or else… http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01772.html

Members of Congress are concerned that Jarvik is not a licensed physician but promoting drugs. Unless I missed something, he did graduate from a medical school (the doctor part) and he did invent an artificial heart (the credibility part). I’d rather hear from him than an actor pretending to be an authority. http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN0743425020080107?rpc=44

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