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Is that like a Irishman?lol
Cutting them off would be what I would do.Bob :))
Thanks Jim,I told my buddy the same thing.Taking Atlantic City by storm Sunday till Thursday at the Tropicana.Lots of freebies.They are hurting with all the casinos opening in PA.Bob :)) http://www.tropicana.net/
Hi Pinkie,I just went and checked all my plants.I see the rot on a few of the cherry tomato plants.Nothing on the other plants.Nothing Major overall.The Sun has helped everything the last 10 days.Let me know how it turns out.Bob :))
When I am a senior I will shoot myself before I become a mall walker.I see the same people everyday no matter what mall I am working.
TV bites for the most part.Rather go brain dead on the net.
Remember my rant about the whoring Drug companies/commercials~Big dosage, big profit: Does Genzyme encourage larger dosages than we need?
Melly Alazraki
Jul 10th 2009 at 8:00AMText SizeAAAFiled under: Company News, Healthcare
Pharmaceutical drugmaker Genzyme (GENZ), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specializes in creating drugs for rare diseases. It's a small market, but it's highly lucrative: the Orphan Drug Act gives the company tax credits and enhanced patent protection, virtually guaranteeing that its drugs become blockbusters.
Consider Genzyme's drug Cerezyme, which treats a rare, chronic genetic disease called Gaucher, and which has an astonishing price tag that netted the company $1.24 billion last year -- more than a quarter of its total revenue. But when a recent manufacturing problem threatened a potential Cerezyme shortage, Genzyme's response seemed to confirm some critics' long-held suspicions that the company may be encouraging inflated dosage -- and therefore higher sales -- of its drug, which costs patients hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
After announcing weeks ago that it would shut down a Boston-area plant through July, Genzyme said it would ask some consumers to conserve their stocks of the drug by temporarily skipping or reducing doses. The missed doses will not cause significant health problems, Genzyme's chief executive, Henri Termeer, said in a recent conference call: "It is not a life-and-death, immediate acute situation we're dealing with here."
What's troubling is that Genzyme has a monopoly on treatment for Gaucher, among other rare diseases. Without significant competition for drug treatment, the medical community is left to provide its own checks and balances on an intricate, delicate symbiosis that benefits patients and doctors as much as it benefits Genzyme's bottom line.
Gaucher affects fewer than 10,000 people worldwide, many of them Ashkenazi Jews and northern Swedes. Sufferers lack enough glucocerebrosidase, the enzyme that breaks down lipids which would otherwise amass in the liver, spleen, bones and bone marrow, preventing cells and organs from working properly. Symptoms include enlarged spleen and liver, anemia, low blood platelets, painful skeletal disorders and bone lesions, osteoporosis, and neurological complications.
Genzyme has monopolized Gaucher treatment: some 5,000 patients take Cerezyme -- roughly half of the people with the disease. (Rival drugmaker Actelion Pharmaceuticals markets a medicine called Zavesca for patients who can't take Cerezyme; many patients take no drug at all.)
The drug's astronomical cost is related to the common dosage of 60 units per kilogram every two weeks. Median prices are $1,225 for a 200-unit supply and $2,781 for a 400-unit supply, according to the Canadian Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. The average cost for treatment is $200,000 a year. Approximately 10 percent of Cerezyme users receive the drug free from Genzyme.
"Recent analyses of data from the Gaucher Registry established that treatment with Cerezyme leads to a dose-dependent improvement in key bone, hematologic, and visceral parameters in patients with Gaucher disease type 1," says John Yee, M.D., Genzyme's vice president of Global Medical Affairs. But not everyone agrees such high dosage is necessary. Ari Zimran, M.D., is director of the Gaucher Clinic at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, which treats nearly 200 Gaucher patients and monitors more than 700. Zimran administers roughly a quarter of the average dosage given in the U.S., arguing that no clinical evidence suggests that a higher dosage is more effective in treating the symptoms or preventing bone disease.
Zimran says the higher dosage isn't necessarily harmful, but he argues that a patient should take what he believes is the minimal efficient dosage. Zimran says dosage should depend on the severity of symptoms, the patient's age -- and the cost. "Gaucher is a benign disease," he says. "Unlike cancer or bacterial infection, which must be eradicated -- often at the expense of making the patient sick in other ways, such as chemotherapy, which kills healthy cells too -- there is no need to go that length with Gaucher."
Genzyme's Yee says, "Studies show that higher doses generally lead to better clinical response and greater achievement of published therapeutic goals." But he acknowledges: "Evidence regarding dose in the peer-reviewed, published medical literature is not consistent," and adds that some studies show little difference in outcomes for Gaucher patients treated with lower Cerezyme doses.
Zimran was a part of a clinical trial in the early 1990s to examine the impact of the frequency of the the low-dose regimen. The results for the patients were the same, he says, for high and low frequency, and similar to the high-dose study in the U.S. While the trial results, published in leading medical journal The Lancet, are not often cited, Zimran says, other studies support its conclusion on a clinical basis.
The International Collaborative Gaucher Group Gaucher Registry (supported by Genzyme) reveals the symbiotic relationship among the company, health-care professionals, and Gaucher patients. The largest cooperative, observational registry on Gaucher was established in 1991 as a longitudinal database tracking outcomes of routine clinical practice. Genzyme's access to the registry's patient and treatment data gives the company highly unusual clout in following up with -- and potentially influencing -- doctors treating Gaucher patients. At times, Genzyme funded full-time data-entry personnel for Gaucher centers.
Genzyme says its registry is meant only to benefit the patients, an important study tool that benefits patients and medicine with longterm tracking and with treatment options that help optimize patient care. But it's also a brilliant marketing tool for the for-profit drugmaker -- and a controversial one. The medical community would probably not accept such a registry for treating other diseases; doctors and patients typically calibrate a dosage without the intervention of a pharmaceutical company. Indeed, the registry has been criticized for monopolizing treatment of the disease and for breaching ethical boundaries on patient information.
Of course, Genzyme has a duty to maximize shareholder value, and it does so with great science, a high-quality product, and superb marketing, as Zimran says. But Genzyme's ability to question a doctor's dosage, and its access to patients' consumption of Cerezyme, makes the registry a minefield of potential conflict.
"Data from the Gaucher Registry have contributed to more than 20 peer-reviewed publications on Gaucher disease," Yee says. Nevertheless, Zimran counters that this data isn't often used to the fullest.
Some also question the practice of treating Gaucher patients with minimal or no symptoms, Zimran says. Gaucher patients may have some natural immunity, due to elevated levels of glycollipid, a fat molecule, in their plasma, he says. "While Cerezyme itself does not cause diabetes, heart disease or cancer," he says, "mild patients who take it may lose a natural selective advantage -- thus making them more susceptible to common diseases they had better natural immunity against."
Genzyme strives to appear uninvolved in the treatment process. Officially, at least, the company recommends individualized dosing for all patients. "Numerous studies have supported the need to determine dose on an individual basis," Yee says.
Physicians, as a profession, generally claim they're immune to pharmaceutical company marketing. But evidence suggests that drug-company marketing, including promotional materials and free samples, influences doctors' attitudes and increases drug sales. (Such marketing is feeling pressure from Congress, under this year's bipartisan Physician Payment Sunshine Act.) The mission statement of NoFreeLunch, a non-profit watchdog organization founded by health-care providers, states: "We discourage the acceptance of all gifts from industry by health care providers, trainees, and students. Our goal is improved patient care." A World Health Organization database also documents the impact on health professionals of biased marketing information and gifts and other inappropriate promotions.
Zimran, it should be noted, admires Genzyme for the medical advances it's made. He gets research grants from the company, and he has contributed to Britain-based Shire and Israel-based Protalix Biotherapeutics developing enzyme therapies similar to Cerezyme. He predicts that both new enzymes will get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is moving to speed up access to these drugs to help offset likely Cerezyme shortages. However, he doesn't anticipate the company's severing ties with its network of physicians.
With the expected Cerezyme shortage, Genzyme's critics will watch to see whether patients' taking a "vacation" from the higher dosage notice any health effects. And if many patients don't feel any worse on a lower, cheaper dosage, then many Cerezyme consumers could decide to make it a permanent vacation.
Hi Jim,I haven't been following the GM roller coaster.I had a friend email me today about the stock.What is going to happen to the current stock?Thanks Bob :))
Where do we go from here?The middle class is being taken apart.With that being said,the middle class drives the economy.Being a multiple mall business owner.What I see is unmarried Kids with kids tapping the system and immigrants taking the free ride tax free for years along with MANY other freebies.Not so good to be a white born and raised American business owner these days.At least for the few that are left.Sad
We all get lucky sometimes.The economy is not getting better.Actually getting Scary based on everything I know and business owners feedback.Bob:))
Love this weather.Going to be nice in Jersey for my mini vacation next week.Bob :))
Everything is behind.My beans looked bad 7 days ago.Now they are climbing fast.The peas actually have pods now.Sun Sun Sun
Late crop this year.My sugar snap peas are climbing all over the place.So are my green beans.Amazing what a little sun will do.Bob :))))
Hey Harr,Membermarks mean nothing.Actually smart players want less interest.No need for updates.This play was about getting the dismissal and what rolls in.The people who bought at .0004 and up were looking for the quick pop to .001.They sold because it did not happen.The buy points are .0001-.0003.It is about what happens to the shell.Which looks pretty clean now.Its a Lotto play.Any type of company that enters the shell and everyone will be good to go.Have a Great Summer.Bob :)))
Indeed..........
Ate my first ripe Cherry Tomato tonight.The simple things are so refreshing.Now lets hope I hit the jackpot on my AC vacation next week.lol Bob :))
Enjoy the Summer everyone~Black eyed Peas~
Thanks for posting Glassy.I had the need to start this board because it will be fun~fun~fun with a few picks mixed in.I rule Scranton when it comes to The Office and Irish Heritage.Going on a little vacation next week.Will spend more time fixing up the board after that.Moderators that know how to fix up the ibox welcome.Cheers Bob :))
YEA~Cavo~
Come one~Come all.Nothing hotter than The Office and Irish Green Beer.Maybe pick up a stock tip here and their also.Live from Scranton.Bob :))))))))))))))
We had two days without some sort of precipitation until today.I planted my garden May 21 and have not had to water it once.That has never happened to me.Most years I am out their every day or every other day.Saving on water.Spending more on the lawn man.lol Bob :))
On and off all day.Beautiful and then bang.Pattern repeated all day.Weirdest summer ever.
How about the weather today.Sunny for a hour~bad storms for a hour all day.Someone is messing with Mother nature.
On the gardening side~Beans~Sweet Peas and tomato's doing well.I found some sweet bannana peppers about a foot high that I planted in my lettuce section.They actually had peppers starting.Gardens make me nuts and driven.lol Bob :))
Here's a funny.I have long time friend that works for me that is Gay.He was asked to go to the Nickelback concert at Montage Mountain.He told me tonight I can go to nik nik nikelflat.He asked me if they are any good.I said YEA.He said whatever I like Barbara Mandrell.lol I have more mall stories than anyone in the world.Wish I could write a book.Bob :))
Yea,Most scallop recipes are spicy.I think I will try the sweet lime one this week.I am more of a sweet person.Pizza sauce included.Bob :))
Markets slow so I look for good recipes and play poker for fun online while dealing with my customers.Be in AC most of next week.Lotza free comps/rooms.Gotta find the action.hehe
Increase as needed.Gotta love ya.lol
If you like it sweeter side~Broiled scallops with sweet lime sauce
Submitted by: KRUSTYNUTZ
Rather than creating a fatty lime sauce, this modified recipe coats the scallops in honey and lime juice and gently broils them.
Fish |
Ingredients
4 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon olive or canola oil
1 pound bay or sea scallops, rinsed and patted dry
2 teaspoons grated lime peel
1 lime, cut into 4 wedges
Directions
Preheat the broiler. Position the rack 4 inches from the heat source. Cover a broiler pan or cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spray generously with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together the honey, lime juice and oil. Add the scallops and toss gently to coat with the honey mixture.
Arrange the scallops in a single layer on the prepared broiler pan or baking sheet. Broil until opaque throughout when tested with a tip of a knife, about 5 minutes. Turn the scallops over and broil for another minute.
Divide the scallops onto 4 warmed plates. Pour any juices from the broiler pan or baking sheet over the scallops. Sprinkle with grated lime peel and serve with a lime wedge.
Number of Servings: 4
Mara's Broccoli
and Scallop Pasta Sauce
Recipe from: Marcella Cucina
by Marcella Hazan
Cookbook Heaven at Recipelink.com
(il Sugo di Cape Sante e Broccoli di Mara Martin)
making 6 satisfactory servings
1 pound broccoli
Salt
1/2 pound scallops, preferably bay
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
Chopped hot chili pepper, 1/8 teaspoon or to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Enough sauce for 1 pound of pasta
SUGGESTED PASTA:
Mara uses pennini, a thin version of boxed penne pasta. Any short, narrow, tubular shape such a maccheronici will work well.
Pare away from the broccoli's main stems, and from the florets' stems as well, the hard, dark green rind and any other tough stringy part.
Wash the stems under cold running water, and the florets in several changes of changes of cold water.
Bring a pot of water to a boil, add 2 tablespoons salt and the thick, main broccoli stems. Cook for 7 or 8 minutes, then add the florets. When the water returns to a boil, cook for another 12 minutes or so, then drain and set aside.
Wash and drain the scallops, trim away from each its thin, tough, white filament; then cut them across the grain into thin rounds. Pat dry with kitchen towels.
Separate the larger floret clusters of the broccoli into smaller pieces and slice the main stems into thin rounds.
Put 6 tablespoons of butter and the chopped onion into a 12-inch skillet and turn the heat on to medium high. Cook, stirring frequently, without letting the onion become colored. Add all the broccoli and turn it over with a wooden spoon to coat it well. Cook for 6 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the sliced scallops, the thyme, chili pepper, and salt and cook briefly, just until the color of the scallops changes from translucent to flat white. Take the pan off heat and swirl in grated cheese.
When the pasta is nearly done, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to the pan with the scallops and broccoli. Return the pan to medium heat, turn over all ingredients with a wooden spoon, then add the drained hot pasta. Toss it thoroughly but for not more than 20 seconds in the pan that is still over medium heat, empty the contents of the pan into a warm serving bowl, and serve at once.
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTE:
Psun came back into support/watch territory.Volume light though.Bob :))
Summer Doldrums.Hot tailing it out of town next week myself.Bob :))
LOL
Made no $$ until death~
Hmmmmmm
A pissed off smile.
HaHa,At least for that day trade.
Or happy and living it up.lol
I gotta feeling deer~
Stop taking them and they could killz ya.People need to deal.lol