Weekend Reading… On The Couch
8 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // January 3rd, 2010 // 9:25 am
Hello, everyone. Hope your holiday break was fun and while you continue to unwind, we thought it might be helpful to offer you a few minutes of interesting reading. Meanwhile, we hope to brave the brisk winds to walk our faithful friend shortly. So we’ll leave you with these items for now and resume the usual routine tomorrow. Hope your weekend is going well and you enjoy yourselves…
James Goddard, a former FDA commish who was credited with overhauling the agency’s methods for evaluating drugs, died last week of a brain hemorrhage. From 1966 to 1968, he cracked down on exaggerated drug ads, delayed approval of new drug applications until drugmakers backed them up with more testing, and campaigned to take ineffective drugs off the market. A fly in industry’s ointment, he was 86 and died of a brain hemorrhage. You can read his obit here.
The rebound in the stock market is causing venture investors in early-stage companies to look at 2010 as a year when they find an exit through mergers, acquisitions or even initial public offerings. “We have three exits in process right now,” Lisa Suennen, managing member of Psilos Group, tells Dow Jones. “For us, it’s going to be a great year.”
The new Novartis corporate campus in Basel, Switzerland, includes buildings designed by several famed architects, although as The New York Times writes, the idea is to “reorganize the entire social fabric…and foster better communication between those who develop and market drugs. Office floors would be laid out to prompt cross-disciplinary interaction; parks and courtyards, decorated with artworks, would be conceived as places of private contemplation. Every square inch, in essence, would be designed to encourage the flow of ideas.” Nonetheless, there is an Orwellian feel to the telling.
Flu season is still with us and swine flu, in particular, is a reminder that vaccines are a big business. The Globe and Mail offers a useful look at flu vaccines and how these represent increased opportunity for drugmakers. Swine flu, in particlar, represented “a new market, created by this pandemic scare,” Michael Ossi, an infectious disease expert at GlaxoSmithKline, tells the paper.
Couch thx to Keko and flu shot (get it?) thx to Lu_lu on Flickr Creative Commons
Steve
As I read the NYT article on the Novartis complex, I couldn’t help but think that each multi-million dollar/euro expanse of stainless/glass/cement was paid for a few dollars at a time by folks with far, far less…the word hubris comes to mind.
Justice in MI
Enjoy the break, Ed. I included the Goddard story in the thread below as well. Lots of interesting things, especially for those who think that FDA is “unreformable.”
That said, also interesting how easily Johnson/Humphrey seemed ready to throw Goddard overboard in the wake of a special campaign gift.
Finally, occurding to obit, Goddard moved from FDA to an industry job post FDA. Would be interesting to know where he was and what he did. Perhaps someone here knows.
Josh
Steve,
And the same thing comes to mind with Federal government buildings and churches…
patrons99
Thanks Ed, for the post and links, including the Globe and Mail article, “How Vaccines Became Big Business”, by Paul Waldie and Grant Robertson, on December 29, 2009.
Here’s a recent related link to a Global Research article, “European Parliament to Investigate WHO and “Pandemic” Scandal, by F. William Engdahl, on December 31, 2009.
http://globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=16667
Justice in MI
The LA Times version of the Goddard bio is, in a way, more interesting (even though same parent company).
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-james-goddard1-2010jan01,0,7414875.story
pharmavet
Drug companies are usually a good stock because no matter what, they will always continue to pay a dividend. Even Pfizer continues to pay dividends. When I worked for Abbott in the 1980’s they were on a streak of 200+ consecutive quarters of paying a dividend, a streak that continues today. So if you are looking for a stock with some income producing potential, drug cos. are a way to go.
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riv
Dogs are such good listeners.
Batman
Ed,
Thanks for this Blog. Its a great read.
Batman