VMC SURVEY BOARD

[tmcal6]

OT - VPHM

I feel conflicted regarding the positive news for one of my pick six stocks, vphm, which just announced a price hike on it's new drug Vancocin of @ 22%. It is a PSL1 pick for me, I own a decent size position, and I am happy the stock will be moving up tomorrow (it moved up @ $.87 aftermarket), but I felt the stock would do well without the drug price increase. The company announced strong earnings a week ago, it raised the price of the drug about 28% about 3-4 months ago, and the company seems to be only increasing the price because they can.

I guess that is the nature of our capitalist system and our health care system, but it is also indicative of the causes of ridiculous increases in the cost of health care over the last 10 years and one of the reasons more and more americans cannot afford health care insurance.

Sure, I can afford ridiculous health care costs, but somehow the system has to change.

Tmcal6