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ppp- current issues

Good Morning!

The sacred and the secular

 This week I will defer to an editorial by a Mr. Fish in, of all places, the New York Times. He observes secular society and opines that the secular NEEDS the sacred as a foil. Facts are simply facts. It is only by placing them in a metaphysical construct that they can move us in any direction.

 http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/are-there-secular-reasons/?pagemode=print

 So don’t abandon your religiously founded moral convictions; they provide the reasons to otherwise unreasoned secular discourse. Just as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) acts as an antihistamine and as a sedative it is only in the motive/goal for taking it (allergy or as a sleep aid) that you can assign positive (sedation as a desired pharmacologic effect) or negative (drowsiness as a side effect) value. Goals have to be defined before you can tell if you are achieving them and moral good achieved only if defined within a set of values.

 Have a GREAT week!

Steve

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ps. Best answer this week to the question "How are you?" was "I'm just a shade under that (that=SUPERFANTASTIC)."

pps. Please note that some of the links may not be up for very long and that

     you should capture or print anything that you may wish to keep.

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1) Oldest is best

I’m not talking about sibling birth order but how long antiepileptic drugs have been around vs efficacy. Recent study of newer drugs to treat absence seizures in kids fared worse that the original, Ethosuximide (Zarontin).

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_95959.html

2) Two drugs better against swollen prostate

Southwest medical journal published a report of the use of a 2 drug regimen for the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). Makes a lot of sense to come at this through 2 separate and distinct mechanisms of action. If this fails then there is always the surgical option.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1830691ml

3) Straight up or 3 drug “cocktail”?

The State of Washington has filed for a change in the way it executes prisoners, going from a 3 drug “trifecta” to a single drug. Those who don’t want to use drugs to end their life have the option of hanging. All of this debate would make sense if it was rational to execute people in the first place. Some argue that they want to extract “justice” by killing the killer. I prefer to believe that only One Person holds the “Justice” card. Contrary to popular belief, the Catholic Church has called for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty knowing that prisoners can be controlled in our modern prisons. (read more http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/procon/popestate.html     )

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100303/ap_on_re_us/us_death_penalty  

 Click picture to learn about

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4) Salad dressing or drugs: FDA set to bust some chops

The FDA (Food AND Drug) is set to pursue criminal charges for misbranding of products. Expect some head to roll, and I don’t mean lettuce!

http://serkadis.com/index/388363

5) It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!

Just in time to bail out trial lawyers… Yas (the oral contraceptive) law suits explode. Probably has nothing to do with the TV commercials soliciting clients…

http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/10006948/bayers-birth-control-

6) Pfizer President posts 8 percent paycut. Poor pauper.

Even though the CEO made what most are calling a brilliant acquisition and raised company profits he will make less in total compensation when compared to last year… only $13.5 million. Most of us would settle for the amount that was cut as our salary.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Pfizer-CEO-got-137-million-in-apf-94193252.html?x=0&.v=3

7) I’m not “bald”, I’m “aerodynamically enhanced”

A group of women claim that the cancer chemotherapeutic drug, taxotere, has caused their permanent baldness. It may have successfully treated their cancers but feel that they are entitled to compensation for the cosmetic side effect.

 http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/10007051/sanofis-latest

Have a SUPER-FANTASTIC week.

Steve

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Copyright 1998-2010 PHARMWORKS, LLC all rights reserved