Pepin’s Pharmaceutical Prattle for 03-14-2005

 Good morning !

Run Through the Tape

 How are you to run a race? My old track coach had two tips:

   1) Start running on ANY sound you hear after the words “On you mark…Get set….”

   2) Run through the finish line (pretend the tape is 10 yards beyond the end of the race)

This works for professionals too. Be enthusiastic in tackling a job or project and keep the intensity through the end of the job. We see many seniors in our educational institutions “coast” for the last semester. Their grades usually suffer and doesn’t bode well for either college or their move into the workforce. Many people in the work force experience “presenteeism” where they have lost their fire but do show up at the office. This has several costs: lack of self esteem and loss of productivity.

 Start you project with enthusiasm and finish with a flurry. Your energy level, self esteem and productivity will go up. Run through the tape every time and you will be considered World Class!

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ps. Best answer this week to the question "How are you?" was "Hunky dorey" (whatever that means) 

1) Never too late to start

If you haven’t started exercising for heart health you can start NOW and reap the benefits. Step away from the remote and nobody gets hurt!

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-03-11T191746Z_01_B671021_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-EXERCISE-HEART-DC.XML

 2) Seizures not “old timers disease”

Some “senior moments” may actually be seizures. Not the “fall down and shake all over type” but something called partial complex seizures. I did research in this area for 6 years with the National Institutes of health and it is easy to miss unless you have a heightened awareness. Diagnosis will involve and EEG if other signs point that way.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-03-11T173704Z_01_B700341_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-SENIOR-EPILEPSY-DC.XML

 3) Pfuture pfizer pformula pfor pfinancial pfranchize pfat

Pfizer, those same great people who brought you Lipitor, will extend the Lipitor franchise by only selling a new anticholesterol drug in a combination pill. The new compound acts by way of a different mechanism than the HMG’s. Expect the other drug companies to come out with their own combo products. (I will predict that Pfizer will relent and sell as a separate chemical entity).

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/07/business/07pfizer.html?th

4) Flat pill sales

Round pill sales are also pretty flat. This report shows the slowed growth in pharmaceutical sales. Fewer blockbuster releases and more patent loss are contributing. Only in this industry would 7% growth be perceived as “flat”.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/050309/health_drugs_data_1.html

 5) Told you so….(see #5 from http://www.pharmworks.com/ppp_02_21_2005.htm )

Two eczema drugs receive BLACK BOX warnings from the FDA because of increased cancer risk. I believe that I would find other ways to treat the disease in my kids rather than increasing their cancer risk.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/050310/health_eczema_1.html

 6) “I Didn’t SaveRx”

This could be what the patient said upon finding out that their internet drug order was seized by the FDA. The FDA has seized individual orders for medications coming into the US from the Canadian site I SaveRX .  Expect more heat as the illegal Illinois state Canadian drug import plan buts heads with the FDA. In the mean time the message to consumers is “You can try to save a little money by participating in this illegal activity at the risk of losing it all”.  I wish the FDA had done this from day one. What they did was like raising spoiled kids and then calling in the Nanny!

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/09drugs.html

 7) Medicare Part-D regions link

If you aren’t asleep already then this should do the trick. Just click on the Issues Brief(.pdf) link. Be patient… many are hitting this site and it could take awhile. (Which only proves how large the problem of INSOMNIA is)

http://www.kff.org/medicare/7298.cfm

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