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Subscribe to RSSAn Ohio drugmaker began releasing limited supplies of a crucial medication to treat childhood leukemia Thursday, sending hospital pharmacists facing life-threatening shortages scrambling for their share.
Jerrod Milton, chief of pharmacy at Children’s Hospital of Colorado, was among those first in line as Ben Venue Laboratories began accepting new orders for the drug methotrexate, three weeks before the hospital would have run out completely.
“I had a tip that it was going to be available,” he said. “I put my pharmacy team on notice.”
Ben Venue officials said product would be allocated starting now and continuing over the next several weeks to oncology clinics, hospitals and pediatric facilities, easing the shortage crisis. No information was available about which sites would get the scarce drugs first, or in what order.
Milton is awaiting the arrival Friday of what he hopes will be 300 250-milligram vials of the widely-used drug to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia, known as A.L.L., a blood cancer that mostly affects young children. It's a virulent cancer of the white blood cells that spreads to other parts of the body.
The drug is short-dated, meaning it is set to expire in two weeks, but Milton is requesting it anyway to replenish vital supplies of the medication that makes A.L.L curable in about 90 percent of cases, cancer doctors say. The amount and timing of the drug used varies widely according to age, weight and other patient factors. The Colorado hospital has dozens of patients on the protocol.
“It extends our supply by essentially up to a month,” said Milton, who is also his hospital’s vice president of operations. “But it’s still a very uncomfortable place to be.”
News this week that hospitals across the country were within a couple weeks of running out of the critical drug prompted herculean negotiations involving the federal Food and Drug Administration and the five manufacturers of methotrexate. The story was first reported in the New York Times.
Chuck Eaton, facesofhope.org
Justine Seibel, 13, of Fort Mill, S.C., is among thousands of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or A.L.L., who are treated with the cancer drug methotrexate. Reports of dire shortages worry her mother, Christine Farinick.
It also prompted anxiety and anger for parents like Christine Farinick of Fort Mill, S.C., whose 13-year-old daughter, Justine, was diagnosed with A.L.L. a year ago. She has received dozens of treatments of methotrexate and is scheduled for another session in three weeks -- as long doctors can get it.
“Without it, there’s a high rate of relapse,” said Farinick, who is getting a passport and researching ways to obtain methotrexate from suppliers in Europe and Canada if she can’t obtain it in the U.S. “It is available.”
Bedford Laboratories, which runs Ben Venue, worked with the FDA to arrange allocation of strictly limited supplies of the drug. The product was produced before the troubled firm voluntarily shut down its operations in November because of manufacturing and quality problems identified during FDA inspections.
“We hope this supply will help address near-term patient needs while other companies licensed to manufacture methotrexate increase production,” Ben Venue officials said in a statement.
The four other manufacturers of the drug -- Hospira Inc., Mylan Institutional, Sandoz and APP Pharmaceuticals LLC -- indicated they were trying to increase production or work with the FDA to allow production of the preservative-free version of the drug. Methotrexate without preservative is given intravenously or injected into spinal fluid, where preservatives could cause toxic reactions.
Neither Bedford officials nor the FDA would say how much product is available, or how many hospitals would be served. Hospital buyers say they’re being quizzed about patient need and allowed a two-week supply of the drug, said Erin Fox, manager of the Drug Information Service at the University of Utah, which tracks drug shortages.
The new availability is both a relief and a reminder of the seriousness of drug shortages that now number about 287, the most in U.S. history, cancer experts said.
“Every little bit helps, but it’s so wrong that we have to live like this,” said Dr. Harvey Cohen, a professor of pediatrics at the Stanford School of Medicine and a member of the American Society of Hematology’s government affairs committee. After decades of progress in finding the right drugs to treat -- and cure -- A.L.L., not being able to obtain them is a huge setback, Cohen said.
He was waiting to hear Thursday whether he would get an order of 20 grams of methotrexate to treat a 16-year-old boy with a bone tumor on Friday.
“His tumor responded beautifully to the medicine. We know the medicine works,” Cohen said. “We have the orders in. I signed them myself yesterday. I just don’t know if we will get it.”
Cohen said he and his colleagues essentially have to ration the drug, giving highest doses to children with difficult-to-treat cancer and lower doses to those whose condition is easier to treat.
"Given the shortage, we have to be able to give that to the children who will benefit the most," he said.
Some experts are breathing a brief sigh of relief at the stop-gap supplies of methotrexate. Dr. Michael Link, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, praised the FDA’s efforts to avert a total shortage.
“The FDA deserves a fair amount of credit for really stepping up to the plate and resolving this for the short term,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we had to get to a crisis situation.”
Five U.S. senators demanded more information about the problem on Thursday, sending a letter to Ben Venue officials saying patients and providers have been given no timeline for fully resolving the crisis. They asked for more information about the quality problems at Ben Venue that prompted the shutdown, stalling production not only of methotrexate, but other drugs in short supply. The senators asked if reimbursements for the drug, which is a low-profit generic, played a role in the current shortage.
That echoes the concerns of Christine Farinick, who said she believes that low returns are at the root of the problem.
"All the medication shortages are because the drugs are not profitable to make," she said, adding: “I think that’s absolutely disgusting."
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I work in medicine, I am not a physician, but I have had to deal with the pharmacriminals for a long, long time. They take NIH money from the government, move off-shore to pay no taxes, market the researched-developed drugs at outrages prices to Americans and sell them for less to other countries, bribe the physicians with extravagant perks (paid for by us and the patients) and in general have no regard for anything other than turning health care into a health industry and a profit mill. This is what you can expect in a capitalist society where only profits count. There was a anti-malarial agent (the name escapes me at the moment) that was marketed in Africa but was re-packeged as a cosmetic because the profit margin was too small when used to treat malaria. This industry should be socialized. And capitalism "works"? For who?
daniel,
Hey putz. Get off your soap box. This company voluntarily shut down because of some problems noted by the FDA.
This is totally ridiculous! As a mom of a beautiful 2 1/2 year old daughter who has Leukemia,we depend on this drug for her treatment,she has to be on this drug for the next 2 years! I can't even imagine looking into her big eyes and saying sorry baby,but we cannot get the medicine you need to make you better. I just pray in Jesus name that the Lord will work all this out.
Studies assessing the anticancer properties of cannabinoids (property of marijuana) have shown that they inhibit the proliferation of a wide range of cancers, including brain cancer, prostate cancer, oral cancers, lung cancer, skin cancer, pancreatic cancer, biliary tract cancers, lymphoma, and breast cancer.
The dual effects of delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol on cholangiocarcinoma (biliary tract cancer) cells: anti-invasion activity at low concentration and apoptosis induction at high concentration.
The anticancer effect of Delta (9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal active component of cannabinoids has been demonstrated in various kinds of cancers.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19916793 (government site)
Cannabinoids inhibit cellular respiration of human oral cancer cells.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20516734 (government site)
Anti-proliferative and apoptotic effects of anandamide in human prostatic cancer cell lines: implication of epidermal growth factor receptor down-regulation and ceramide production.
RESULTS: ANA induced a decrease of EGFR levels on LNCaP, DU145, and PC3 prostatic cancer cells by acting through cannabinoid CB(1) receptor subtype and this leaded to an inhibition of the EGF-stimulated growth of these cells.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12746841?dopt=Abstract (government site)
Cannabinoids reduce ErbB2-driven breast cancer progression through Akt inhibition
Results
Our results show that both Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the most abundant and potent cannabinoid in marijuana, and JWH-133, a non-psychotropic CB2 receptor-selective agonist, reduce tumor growth, tumor number, and the amount/severity of lung metastases in MMTV-neu mice. Histological analyses of the tumors revealed that cannabinoids inhibit cancer cell proliferation, induce cancer cell apoptosis, and impair tumor angiogenesis. Cannabinoid antitumoral action relies, at least partially, on the inhibition of the pro-tumorigenic Akt pathway. We also found that 91% of ErbB2-positive tumors express the non-psychotropic cannabinoid receptor CB2.
http://www.molecular-cancer.com/content/9/1/196
Inhibition of skin tumor growth and angiogenesis in vivo by activation of cannabinoid receptors
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/16116/version/1
Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol inhibits epithelial growth factor-induced lung cancer cell migration in vitro as well as its growth and metastasis in vivo
http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/v27/n3/abs/1210641a.html
Cannabinoid Receptor-Mediated Apoptosis Induced by R(+)-Methanandamide and Win55,212-2 Is Associated with Ceramide Accumulation and p38 Activation in Mantle Cell Lymphoma
We have recently shown that cannabinoids induce growth inhibition and apoptosis in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), a malignant B-cell lymphoma that expresses high levels of cannabinoid receptor types 1 and 2 (CB1 and CB2).
http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/70/5/1612.abstract
Cannabinoids as potential new therapy for the treatment of gliomas (brain cancer)
http://www.expert-reviews.com/doi/abs/10.1586/14737175.8.1.37
Cannabinoids Induce Apoptosis of Pancreatic Tumor Cells via Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress–Related Genes
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/66/13/6748.abstract
joe,
You just wasted time and ink. Speak in plain English. We are not all educated in the field of chemistry and medicine.
How the hell would you like a CPA explaining the intricacies of accounting to you in one easy lesson?
S/He's advocating the use in marijuana in cancer treatment. While that field is certainly emerging, there is absolutely no meta-analysis conclusions on the direct benefits in limiting cancerous growth and metastasis. That's not so say that there isn't any, we just don't have enough information on it yet. Where I study, there is a large cohort of scientists and physicians looking at that, across many different departments and disciplines, and they all resounding say the same thing: we just don't know much yet.
i wasted ink? you know this is all digital here, right? i'm also not educated in the field of chemistry and medicine, but basically if you study what english there is in my post, you'll see that basically cannabinoids "inhibits cancer growth". it stops cancer. well well...
you do realize why we don't know much yet, right? our government won't allow us to. they're in big pharma's pocket, that's why...
Guy wants his dope big time!?!?!
Joe,
I DO in fact realize why our scope of knowledge is limited, with respect to the cannabinoids. The receptors were only discovered in the 90's if my memory serves me. The basic science field itself is only 20 years old! Even when a compound/pathway/target becomes a realistic potential for treatment, it takes ~10 years to get to bedside. And many fields (NF-kB, mTOR, p53) which are very well established in cancer biology, dating back 40 years, STILL don't have any usable treatments extracted from them.
Really? Then why when I looked up just a handful of our Univ.s PI's studying CR's, they ALL have public NIH funding? Doesn't make sense that the government would fund all of the studies YOU linked to, but wouldn't want the data? Please explain, as obviously you know the ins and outs of pharmacokinetics, and are intimately associated with NIH funding. Which lab are you a part of?
Oh, well, re-reading your previous statement, its clear you DON'T have any affiliation with research at all. It's also pretty evidenced by this little gem:
You think cannabinoids "stop cancer"? Really? Really??? Wow. I'll share this at the next cancer symposium!!
please do. our national institute of cancer put that up on their website as well and took it off two or so hours later after the feds blew up at them about it. and the FDA won't allow us to research marijuana at all. also, that point about cannabis only being recently "discovered" as medicinal does not account for the fact that marijuana has been used for thousands of years as a medicine...
National Cancer Institute scrubs “anti-tumoral effect” of cannabinoids from website
http://blog.norml.org/2011/03/30/national-cancer-institute-scrubs-anti-tumoral-effect-of-cannabinoids-from-website/
Our future under health care reform is becoming very apparent! Thanks for placing further expenses and inconvenience on the middle class ans oh by the way, like Massachusetts prices are going to go through the roof and no reform. Thanks for nothing libs!
Mitt Romney is a republican.
Yes and he followed Ted Kennedys lead straight into hell on health care reform. The very corrupted liberals in Mass have kept the reform part on the shelf. 1500 per month for a healthy couple and rising!
the FDA has no problem whatsoever allowing patented monsanto poison GMOS. which are the problem in the first place as to why so many children are sick and dying. yet the FDA drags their feet on lifesaving medicines.
this is unacceptable !!!!!!!!!
wakeupamerica wakeupamerica wakeupamerica
god bless
I am not familiar with the problem outside of this forum.
If these drugs are made in private industry and the maker can't charge enough to break even on them, who is setting up the pricing? Is this loss of exclusive patent control the issue? Does China make these drugs like it makes my meds? Is there no profit in a manufacturing facility that makes 'old' drugs and doesn't have to worry about r&d, testing (outside of QC of course), dead-end development, etc.?
In one of my wife's plethora of mail-order catalogs I see one from this outfit that seems to do well marketing brands like Ipana, Burma-Shave, brands that have long ceased to be made by the original manufacturer. Maybe a place could be established to produce and market semi-obsolete drugs for a decent margin as long as no replacement exists.
It's interesting you mention those things. Consumers demand low prices on generics. However, when there is little to no profit to be made, they demand that someone has to make them. They want 2012 technology at 1950's pricing. However, this isn't the case with BV. They are a relatively profitable company. They make a few generic (but widely used) drugs. That's why I simply can't see why people are shouting from the rooftops. Why would a company risk ALL profits, buy shutting down the entirety of its operation? Why did the FDA, with a shortfall of supply, not expedite review of alternative methods? While there certainly is less of a margin with these companies, they ARE profitable. We know that as MTX is WIDELY used, and only 4 companies make it, and they certainly aren't doing if for free. They save CONSIDERABLE money (as in the hundreds of billions) by not doing R&D, and by outsourcing manufacturing (the actual making of pharmaceuticals isn't all that difficult). There is supply and demand out there, this is simply an overly cautious company taking the appropriate steps to ensure a safe, and quality product, in my opinion.
Health Care like anything else is not a right so yes if you want it you have to pay for it. Of course if it is low profit they are not going to make much of it especially if few people want it. If it works than the people who are getting it should be paying more for it. Not everyone deserves the same health care or should get it. Health Care is not a right.
What will influence people to put money into research for new and better cures is the money they make from it. Lord knows it is much easier to study something OTHER than science and have a school life that takes much less time. If you want people to work hard at hard jobs (like scientific research) you are going to have to pay them for it..and pay them well.
An Ohio drugmaker began releasing limited supplies of a crucial medication to treat childhood leukemia Thursday. You see there is no shortage other than the one the drug companies created. They created this shortage for no other reason than to jack up the cost of these meds so that they can reap a bigger profit. How long will we tolerate this kind of behavior- greed at the direct expense of innocent people.
And to all those who say healthcare is not a right, if thats true then no one has the right to be born healthy. I myself have never heard that no one has the right to be healthy, but maybe ive been living in a bubble. If we have the right to be healthy then access to the best medical care is a right and not a financial privilege. This is pretty simple logic.
A lot of the illnesses our kids are being born with are caused. That is right, caused. It is past time to hold those in our government accountable. They are the problem.
To do the things that would have to be done to keep those "causes" out of our environment would be a hindrance to big business, a huge downturn on profit margins, etc, it is going be much worse for all of us.
WE have to hold our government accountable. The lists below applies to all who take the Oath, or Oaths if are in the judicial branch.
How many of you know that The Constitution of the United States specifies that an officer is to be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors"; experts agree that impeachment is permitted for noncriminal misconduct (e.g., violation of the Constitution)The Constitution of the United States specifies that an officer is to be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors"; experts agree that impeachment is permitted for noncriminal misconduct (e.g., violation of the Constitution, violation of the Oath, etc.
Example: ex POTUS Nixon was charged with the abuse of his power as President, obstruction of justice, and contempt of Congress. 1998 the House agreed articles of impeachment against President Clinton on charges of lying...
They specified instead that the only grounds for impeachment were “Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” These terms referred to the abuse of power, misapplication of public funds (misapplication - the fraudulent appropriation of funds or property entrusted to your care but actually owned by someone else), corruption, criminal conduct, or violating the separation of powers mandated by the Constitution.
A President may also be held responsible for the conduct of his subordinates. He may be charged with a cover-up if he knowingly conceals information regarding a violation of the law or if fails to remove such officials from office when evidence of their offenses comes to his attention. He may also be charged with failing to see that the laws are faithfully executed, with failing to institute procedures so that officials will act lawfully, or with a conspiracy to see that the laws are violated, has included corruption, Dereliction of Constitutional duty, and Violation of Limitations on the Power of an Office A President who testifies falsely in a judicial proceeding may be charged with perjury or obstruction of justice.
... a President could be removed “for conduct amounting to a gross breach of trust or serious abuse of power” and that these are “not limited to criminal offenses” but refer to acts that undermine the integrity of the government, whether technically criminal or not. (Extension of the Patriot Act, NDAA, warrantless searches, TSA at the airports, bus stations, train stations, on our roads, etc), etc.
In Federalist No. 65, Hamilton explained impeachment. He defined impeachable offenses as “those offences which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or in other words from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated political, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to the society itself.”
The word "perjury" is usually defined today as "lying under oath about a material matter", "violation of an oath".
If making these drugs were more profitable for the companies, we wouldn't have this "problem." How much is your life worth to you? A lowly medicare reimbursement? You get what you pay for, and if society is too cheap to pay for the talent and know-how to make them, society should do without.
"If making these drugs were more profitable for the companies, we wouldn't have this "problem." How much is your life worth to you?"
You do realize that we pay for those clinical trials, the experiments with grants, etc; that the cost of making the drugs is mostly born by us? You really need to start to learn what is really going on in our world, the pharmaceutical corporations make huge profits off of us.
Sometimes I get sick and tired of people who are willing to accept it is "our" fault somehow without realizing all the facts of the matter.
You do realize that Obama now has another bill that requires (without our permission) that we do clinical trials if they chose us to, or chose our children to? We cannot "opt out", nor is there reimbursement if things go bad, etc.
Or as is going on now, they decide what our children eat, learn, etc:
That a pre-school in our country has created a stir around the country after it was reported that officials forced a child to eat a school lunch and billed the parent because her lunch brought from home did not meet school standards for nutrition. ...had prepared a lunch for her daughter consisting of a turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, apple juice and potato chips. But the school fed her chicken nuggets because the Obama's decided it is healthier then what we send with our kids. Took her own food away, then charged her mother for the "carp" - deliberate misspelling- they fed her child without her (mom's) knowledge until after the fact.
As part of the implementation of Obamacare, the President signed an executive order in 2010 (... whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-establishing-national-prevention-health-promotion-and-public-health ) calling for “behavior modification” of all US citizens.
That is right, Obama plans to tell us we will workout and what type of workout, what type of food we are allowed to eat, what we will be allowed to drink. Already started. Why not, he already is making it much easier thru the TSA to dictate if, when, where we can travel to, within our own country, etc.
"Another * terrorist was arrested on his way to commit mass murder of Americans. But rather than the white, conservative, Christian, Constitution-supporting, American military veteran the FBI and DHS keep warning police about, or the 88-year-old white grandmother, or the little 6-year-old white girl that the TSA loves to frisk at the airport, he turned out to be, as 99 percent of them have, a foreign Muslim."
Our government provided the bomb to the terrorist on the plane, escorted him around the usual way of entry, etc. They knew and aided, no one got hurt. But they got really scared and the passengers saw them assist that terrorist thru the airport, and clear the way for him to get on the plane. One of those passengers now has a case going against our fed gov.
With tax-time approaching, one wonders how is it that when a Democrat cheats on his taxes, like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geihtner and several other Obama appointees, or former Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle, or more recently, like Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), or Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), or Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), or Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), or Rep. Robert Wexler (D-MD), or Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), just to name a few, how is it that they get a pass or at most, a slap on the wrist, and people like you and I end up bankrupt and in jail?
Those who are currently occupying our government are the problem They are corrupt, not doing their job as they have been hired to do, they are causing American citizens, our children harm.
Still going to sit there and let it all happen? Those who currently occupy our government need to be arrested, held for prosecution. They need to be impeached for the actions against the US Constitution and for not keeping the oaths (lots of precedents)
.
You did not read the Healthcare bill (Obamacare) did you? It is planned to stop any long range illness because it is not "cost effective". This is just the start. Quit believing what is shoved into your face and start getting OUR government under control, because if you do not, it will get a lot worse. Or, hey, you can not read this, not start to take responsibility for what is happening in OUR country.
I told all of you who are usually on here after I read it the first time when it came out that was one of the problems with it. Also that everyone who was to go on that healthcare was to be microchipped "so that if an emergency happened our "healthcare information" would be with us in any emergency room" (plus a lot more). (Thanks again to Ron Paul for spearheading that fight and getting the microchipping dropped, but nothing could be done about the rest of it. Notice that they are running short of all the long term illness drugs, and blame our government. Thank everyone who represents us who passed it without reading it as Obama dictated, instead of doing the job WE put them there to do. Thank those of us who would rather trust a government that they knowingly put "the lesser of two evils" into quite a few times. Thank those who didn't bother to HOLD those in the three branches of our government accountable.
Thank Obama for the Healthcare bill, for his support of big pharma, and for his increase in controlling all of us and taking powers OUR Constitution did not give him. (Can you say "domestic enemy"?) Thank our reps we pout into office.
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because the Congress created that problem. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. The Speaker of the House is the leader of the majority party.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully understand the plain truth that 545 people exercise the complete power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists today is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. They broke their Oath, they went against the Constitution which
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees... We should remove all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.
Stupid libertarians and everyone else who complains about people using programs such as social security or medicaid should be complaining about how people are denied healthcare simple because a drug company wants to make a profit, or about how health insurance companies are only willing to insure healthy people who can afford to pay their absurd premiums so they wont have to pay out a dime of those premiums to provide medical care. Has it occurred to anyone that if drug companies gave their medicines away to people who cant afford them that would not reduce their profit margin one cent. The reason this is so is because the drug companies are not making a profit from people who cant afford their drugs so there is no profit to be lost seeing as how they were never making a profit from these people to begin with. You try working a retail job with a permanently disabled body that is in constant never ending pain, but no matter how honest and hard working you are never make enough to be able to afford any healthcare at all. Even if you could make enough insurance companies will either say you have to pay ( for me in 09 700-1500 depending on company but they all say up front they wont spend any of my premium dollars to pay for any treatment concerning my "pre-existing condition") or refuse to cover you at all. First of all what person can afford to pay that kind of monthly premium, and second who would pay for that high a premium knowing full well they would not get medical care for the very health problem they need healthcare for? Paying that kind of money to get medical care you need but knowing you wont get it is absurd. So according to libertarians and others who complain about the government programs I should just shut the hell up and suffer to death because money is somehow more important than my health or life, ya this is perfectly logical.
I agree that this is all about profits, but let me tell you what else this is about. First of all, i suggest you all join up with the 99%, that is, if you love your children, which i doubt. Next, i will try to tell you what i try to tell them, which is how well duped you are about your system, and how naive they seem to me, not understanding just how little true democracy there is in America, which selects its presidents rather than elects them. You see, your entire culture is decrepit. Let me say that i can prove anything and everything i say. They care nothing about your children, the entire cancer research and academic scam, from the public fundraisers, like Susan Komen, and the ACS, and the Pan Mass, to the private entities like Dana Farber Cancer Institute. I am DoctorEx, and i am here to set your murdering society straight. Now i will quote my last two PIs, (my postdoctoral bosses for the rest of you), and both harvard professors. You are delusional; cancer research is not about saving lives, it is about money, and power, and prestige".......I really wanted to do cancer research, but after 16 years behind the bench with my doctorate in Biochemistry, my last boss, full harvard professor, said " you are simply to old to be doing cancer research anymore" and then left town because there is no more money coming from the NIH to fund him nor many others. He is a year older than i, and has gone to another state he has MD and Ph.D. and he virtually plaguarized my last work, misinterpreting it, making major typos, and publishing it as Harvard material without my required permission, but he has gone on to work for Merck, while my wife and I have been left to rot here in boston...My life has been ruined by my efforts to be a cancer scientist, my specialty was cell cycle control, cyclin dependent kinase inhibitors, ubiquitin proteolysis, and c-myc oncogenes and the like. and i will never work again, but i intend for the truth to come out some how about the evils i was faced with.....Too overqualified for even a lab tech position, and un affordable at the NIH payscales to ever be hired in academia again..........Now a virtual nobody, i am here to tell you that i have approached every president and director of every Boston cancer center, university, Pharma companies, you name it..........They all could give a hoot about any patient, they measure success in their miserable shell games by an extra two weeks mean survival time........You made your choices when you chose against socialism and for this garbage capitalistic system. Many people have died because of it, and many more will, but you and your lousy government have lots of money to spend on wars, and the fat pig ceos of the hospitals, I assure you, get together with the fat pigs at the top of the NIH, and the postdoctoral associations, and behind closed doors arrange for careers like mine to be obsolete, and for your childrent to die. Methotrexate is just the tip of the iceberg, a small sign of an evil and corrupt capitalist system that is worthless and should be scrapped. To bad for your kids. My wife and I wish we could have some, but as she is a nursery school teacher raising YOUR spoiled, and out of control children, who will grow up to become overpaid, undereducated, and out of control police, government, ceos, but would only be stupid if they thought that DoctorEx would be anyones hero, rather than the brainwashed and duped children who went to other peoples countries to carry out the murders of a careless and selfish society, in the name of defending a careless and selfish nation. I was very foolish to ever want to help in finding a cure for cancer. Foolish and naive. They have their killing jobs, but i have been left with no future. Thanks so much.
We all have noticed how short supply of medication and medical research has all but stopped since Obama's and Clinton's health care went into effect ! If your over 60+and need an operation ,might as well forget about it, with the so call ethic panel(really the Obama's death squad) Obama has figured out a way to get rid of the old whites and the sick in this country! Ask yourself. why the guy in DC got 12 years in jail for having robo calls during the election but Holder and Obama allowed the new black panthers in 26 different voting area's turning away and intimidate white voters and say on TV they have an army that will kill all white babies and all white women are nothing but whores that will be killed so they can't produce white babies ! It's all true check it out ! Why do you think Obama is working with the NAACP to allow 100 million illegal immigrants into America,Sure it sounds crazy but it's the quickest way to destroy the white race in America ! This is not racist,it's looking at history repeating it's self,no different then Germany in the 30's and 40's,just using different tactics ! Medical care,medicine, food ,gas and shelter and freedoms will be used to control the people in Obama's and Clintons new America ! IT'S HERE NOTHING WE CAN DO TO CHANGE IT ! YES ! THEY WILL EVEN LET CHILDREN DIE TO GAIN CONTROL !
SOUNDS LIKE A BAD BOOK OR MOVIE<BUT IT"S GOING ON IN AMERICA RIGHT NOW,IT"S REALITY !
Please explain to these poor children that scientists are too busy researching ways to create lap burgers to help.........
This is the kind of thing that lawmakers in our country should be concentrating on fixing. NOT trying to pass anti-gay marriage laws and bickering among themselves.
I have yet to hear of any one benefiting from a Health care reform that nobody has read. I do know the cost of health care is still going up and now we have shortages, again, in prescription medications to treat an illness. I find it odd that there is plenty of vicodin and Oxycontin available. Sounds like we need reform again. I guess it will wait for an election year
Why do we run out of life saving drugs but never out of Oxycontin , percocet , methadone , hydrocodone , Viagra ........
Maybe we need stronger regulation of these pharmaceutical companies . Stop the fraud and market manipulation of these greedy companies .
I work in the Medical Field and I cant wait till Obama Care come in 2014. You think people are pissed now, just wait. Wait till the goverment tells you that you cant have a treatment because its to expensive. Then you will see the greed of the goverment!!!
Fact: #1 reason for blindness in Canada, a goverment run healthcare, is glaucoma. A simple relatively cheap procedure, but since the goverment runs the health care you cant get it.
Good thing I'm a doc. I'll find a way to get my health care, the rest of you are screwed!!!! Have fun suckers and keep voting for Obama
I was a drug addict too! But now i have a new life, thanks to some tips that me and my friend realised everyone can do to start a new life and let the weed and other stuff behind. Just follow and get a new life!