| neuwrite97 | Date: Monday, 2013-09-02, 8:59 PM | Message # 1 |
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| "<p>This guest article was written by Kenneth C. Frazier, the chairman with the board, president and chief govt officer of Merck & Co., one of your worlds largest drug companies. He was among the top business <a href="http://www.neuwrite.com/Ray-Ban-Casual-Lifestyle-Polarized-Sunglasses-Rb-8304-002-9a.html">Ray Ban Aviator Sunglasses Rb 3025 W3235</a> leaders who met with Barack Obama in November to discuss the United States fiscal problems.</p><p>At first glance, the fiscal cliff and promising new Alzheimers research dont seem to have much in common.Yet, from my perspective leading one of your largest U.S.-based biopharmaceutical companies engaged in that research, they do indeed.</p><p>As we debate how to step back from the fiscal cliff, it is imperative that we use this moment to address the long-term structural causes on the imbalance between revenues and spending.This isnt about averting one moment of crisis.<br> Instead, its about creating the predictability and certainty in long-term, <a href="http://www.neuwrite.com/Ray-Ban-Casual-Lifestyle-Polarized-Sunglasses-Rb-8304-002-9a.html">Ray Ban Jackie Ohh Sunglasses Rb 4098 601/71</a> economic conditions that are a necessary prerequisite to the kind of investment that our company and others must make to grow and create good jobs for the future.</p><p>One with the fundamental causes of our fiscal imbalance is the significant growth in health care spending. We continue to see health care costs grow faster than GDP, and its clear that we will only get our fiscal house in order if we make smart, sustainable choices to address health care costs and the impact they are having on Medicare and Medicaid.</p><p>One approach to reining in Medicare and Medicaids cost growth has been to leverage the governments power to dictate the prices these programs pay to doctors, hospitals, laboratories, home health care agencies, nursing homes, and drug and device companies.<br> And while these cuts have generated some savings, they do not change the long-term trajectory of health care costs. Thats because these cuts mostly shift money <a href="http://www.neuwrite.com/Ray-Ban-Sunglasses-Rb-4190-878-51.html">Ray Ban Casual Lifestyle Sunglasses Rb 3386 003/8g</a> around, moving costs off the federal books and onto patients and others who pay for health care such as employers.</p><p>Today, there are prominent proponents of more such cuts. They include those seeking to further cut payments to drug companies for sales made to the Medicare outpatient drug program (Part D), a program which has extended access to affordable medicines for millions of patients while keeping costs under control. Yet, rather than celebrating this programs success, these proposals seek to undercut its competitive model without lowering costs for a single Medicare beneficiary.<br> Worse, such proposals may severely damage the ability of companies such as ours to invest in cutting edge research and development, including investment in the many talented scientists who dedicate their lives to finding life changing medical advances.</p><p>And thats where we come back to Alzheimers research. Earlier this month, Merck announced that we are initiating a major study to test both the safety and effectiveness of a new compound for Alzheimers disease, known as a BACE inhibitor. This compound is the first in a new class of medicines to advance to this stage of clinical research.</p><p>Our investment in the BACE inhibitor and other important compounds in our pipeline requires years, and sometimes decades, of investment.<br> For example, the investment required to bring a single new medicine to market far exceeds a billion dollars without any certainty of success. What is certain, however, is that the burden of Alzheimers will grow; we must continue to make these investments ?C for our parents, our families, and perhaps for ourselves. But making investments of this magnitude requires that, if we are successful, our risk taking will be rewarded, so that we may continue to seek the next great advance or medical breakthrough. Cut upon cut, as we lurch from one fiscal crisis to another, undermines that certainty.</p><p>Some may not think that is such a big deal. And in some ways, thats because were victims of our own success; we have begun to take for granted the medicines that give relief and hope to those with cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and HIV.<br> As more and more important medicines go generic, some have also begun to take for granted the companies, such as ours, that have created those medicines in the first place.</p><p>However, none of us with a parent, grandparent, spouse, partner, friend, or mentor with Alzheimers has that luxury. We know that this disease, which takes our loved ones from us one memory at a time, has few effective treatments and no cure. Beyond its personal toll, Alzheimers costs our nation $200 billion a year in direct medical costs, including $140 billion for Medicare and Medicaid. Analysts project these federal program costs will increase five fold by 2050. Medicines to delay the onset of your disease, slow its progression and, yes, prevent it, can bend the federal health care cost curve downward.<br> And Alzheimers is just one of your chronic illnesses at the heart of our health care cost growth crisis.</p><p>Together, chronic disease costs are large and growing. They represent an estimated three-quarters of all health care costs, and two-thirds in the increase in health care spending is due to increased prevalence of treated chronic disease. It is only through more research, supported by risk capital in the private sector, that we will make progress in addressing these diseases and their costs.</p><p>So, rather than shifting costs through short-term cuts, we instead need to make difficult structural changes in our health care programs. These changes should expand competition, encourage provider integration, and create incentives for better, more efficient care.<br> These efforts should include consideration of how the appropriate use of innovative medicines can impact outcomes and help to moderate overall health care spending by preventing more costly illnesses and invasive treatments down the road. These are conversations we must have now if we want to achieve certainty for the future.</p><p>Yes, we have to make some tough choices to address our immediate and long-term deficit. But, how we make these choices is just as important to creating the stability and predictability that can put our nation on a sustainable path to long-term fiscal responsibility and economic prosperity.</p><p>Very good point about the issue of shifting money around, which only moves the fundamental problem of rising healthcare costs from one part of society to another, without actually addressing the issue.<br> We need to look at the bigger picture, at society as a whole, and at some point we must ask ourselves some very difficult questions, like at what point can society not afford to sustain life beyond retirement??? and how much can society afford to pay for the life and health of each individual??? Currently we seem to assume that the answer is unlimited and focus only on who will pay the bill, but soon the cost will become too much for all of us.</p><p>This sounds like a Support your Local Pharmaceutical Company piece but the author does have a very good point about healthcare costs and their effects on our society and our economy. All cost and performance in healthcare should be transparent and available to all potential patients.<br> Thats the ticket! And dont forget that those two things must supplemented with destruction of all monopolies in healthcare which are being built bigger and stronger as you read this. Watch the buyouts and combination of several health facilities to produce a situation with less competition.</p><p>Thanks to free market capitalism, the US has conquered many diseases that once threatened everyone. Thanks for this reminder that we take those who free us from such for granted.</p><p>The solution to exponentially rising costs requires an analysis of government involvement and the idea that government should be the provider of health care. Prior to 1965, it was a state and local responsibility, and health care costs were affordable without insurance.<br> The federal government took over health care for the majority of costs, due to Medicare (90% of our health problems are when we get old, and Medicare covers old people plus the disabled) and Medicaid. Since then, costs of health care have skyrocketed for everyone. Now government claims it has to provide it because no one can afford it????isnt this a case of govt created a problem and now wants to solve the problem with more of the same?</p><p>Instead of creating a vast HHS bureaucracy, why didnt Washington simply provide direct subsidies to these people to purchase their own insurance policies? We now wouldnt be faced with a government monopoly and its destructive costs. Like public schools, which are increasingly more expensive but have decreasing success, the health care monopoly is following the same path??.<br> Why not school and health care vouchers to introduce competition?</p><p>Think about your life each and every moment From the day you were born till now. Think of all the living youve done or have not And if unhappy change and heres how.</p><p>The challenges you face and days of your future Are composed by your actions, faith and love. God sees everything; there is nothing we can hide As He illuminates the darkness from above.</p><p>Faith transforms our character, attitudes, and behavior Far more than anything we learn from school. The lessons of life teach right from wrong As long as we use prayer and faith as a tool.</p><p>So open your heart and let Jesus lead Expanding your energy, hope and self-control. Never presume our labors are truly over For life itself is but a battle for our soul.</p><p>Hurricane Sandy hit like an atom bomb Consuming the helpless in her path.<br> The waters with the deep surged forth Flooding everything with its wrath.</p><p>The best on the brave was seen by man While rescue crews were helping others. They risked their life and laid it on the line To save our sisters and brothers.</p><p>May heaven show mercy upon the lost Never to love, laugh, sing or cry God bless every man, woman and child Who before their time had to die.</p><p>It would be instructive if Mr Frazier and some of his colleagues at the other Pharma/Life Sciences companies could provide an analysis of your $1billion investment for each drug. Assuming it is true and justified, what will it take to reduce that cost. Are there outside /regulatory related costs that could be modified without sacrificing safety?</p><p>Mr. Frazier is on point.<br> Health care costs too much but price controls are not the way to bring them down. One of the major problems today is that primary care physicians do not have the time to give really good preventive care nor take the time to coordinate the care of those with chronic illnesses. This is because reimbursements are too low for PCPs. Yet, as pointed out by Mr. Frazier, 70-85% of health care costs go toward treating chronic illnesses. Most of these (not Alzheimers) are related to adverse behaviors ?C diet, lack of exercise, chronic stress and smoking. Primary care can have a major impact on prevention which will reap benefits down the road. And those with chronic illnesses need a team of providers but any team needs a quarterback. The PCP is or should be that quarterback.<br> Without coordinating care, the patient ends up seeing too many specialists, getting too many tests and X-rays and too many prescriptions. Care coordination leads to an immediate and major cost reduction. Until PCPs can have the time to do these two functions fully, costs will continue to rise.</p><p>The key to delaying the onset of Alzheimers disease and to slow its progression early on is not with BACE inhibitors but with phospholipase C inhibitors (the best combination of which is polyphenols in various fruits, vegetables, spices and essential oils, and polyunsaturated fats). Phospholipase C (gamma and beta) increase the release of BACE and stimulate the activity on the other enzyme involved in the production of amyloid plaques?Cy-secretase.<br> More importantly phospholipase C activity leads to the production with the main toxin in Alzheimers disease: peroxynitrites. Peroxynitrites nitrate NMDA receptors leading to the influx of calcium and efflux of glutamate that kills neurons, it conributes to the hyperphosphorylation and nitration of tau proteins interferring with neurotransmissions, and it oxidates receptors involved in short-term memory (muscarinic acetylcholine), sleep (melatonin), mood (serotonin and opioid), social recognition (oxytocin), alertness (dopamine), smell (olfactory), and brain growth (adrenergic).</p><p>The damage done to the brain by peroxynitrites can be partially reversed with methoxyphenols such as eugenol in rosemary essential oil (and in other essential oils such as bay laurel, clove, and basil) and by coumaric acid, ferulic acid, syringic acid, and vanillic acid in heat-processed ginseng.<br> Jimbo and colleagues using rosemary essential oil (along with lemon, orange, and lavender essential oils) and Heo and colleagues using heat-processed ginseng both observed substantial improvements in cognitive function in patients with moderate to moderately severe Alzheimers disease.</p><p>Rumors are that Mercks drug candidate is an analog of curcumin. If this is true it can potentially be used to treat Alzheimers disease even in the late stages. If it is however only a BACE inhibitor, it will only work slightly in the earliest stages.</p><p>Merck has to be careful because one of its troubled drugs, Fosamax, increases the production of peroxynitrites by inhibiting the phosphatidyinositol-3 kinase/Akt.<br> As a result, the drug likely increases the risk for irregular femur breaks, jaw necrosis, severe esophagitis, atrial fibrilation, and most ironically of all Alzheimers disease.</p><p>You know the key to delaying the onset of Alzheimers disease? Wow. I thought that was still an open question.</p><p>It is only an open question as long as people allow it to be an open question. These are two supporting titles on the role of phenolic compounds and polyunsaturated fats in delaying the onset of Alzheimers disease.</p><p>Neurobiol Aging. 2005 Dec;26 Suppl 1:133-6. Epub 2005 Nov 2. Prevention of Alzheimers disease: Omega-3 fatty acid and phenolic anti-oxidant interventions. Cole GM, Lim GP, Yang F, Teter B, Begum A, Ma Q, Harris-White ME, Frautschy SA. SourceGreater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, Sepulveda, CA 91343, USA.<br> gmcole@ucla.edu </p><p>Behav Brain Res. 2012 Mar 17;228(2):261-71. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.11.014. Epub 2011 Nov 22. LMN diet, rich in polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids, improves mouse cognitive decline associated with aging and Alzheimers disease. Fernández-Fernández L, Comes G, Bolea I, Valente T, Ruiz J, Murtra P, Ramirez B, Anglés N, Reguant J, Morelló JR, Boada M, Hidalgo J, Escorihuela RM, Unzeta M. SourceInstituto de Neurociencias, Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain</p><p>Phenolic compounds are not a panacea. They cannot absolutely prevent or cure Alzheimers disease.<br> Certain polyphenols such as curcumin do not enter the bloodstream well and others such as rice bran (containing ferulic acid) do not enter the brain well. However, in the case of rural India, the incidence of Alzheimers disease is one percent, in part because of your high consumption of various spices (such as piperine in black pepper which increases the absorption of curcumin) and herbs high in polyphenols. Even taking into account missed diagnoses, this is a remarkably low number and most of it can be explained by diet, exercise/work, and the relative lack of exposure to environmental toxins.</p><p>The evidence that high concentrations of methoxyphenols such as eugenol in rosemary essential oil via aromatherapy and coumaric acid, ferulic acid, syringic acid, and vanillic acid in heat-processed ginseng can be used to treat Alzheimers disease (as opposed to prevent it) is much more direct as each has led to improvements in cognitive function in patients with Alzheimers disease.<br></p><p>It is a myth that this disease is so complicated that it will take millions of dollars and decades to understand, that past a certain point there is nothing one can do to treat Alzheimers disease, that the disease can only be treated with synthetic drugs, and that there is nothing one can do to delay the onset of Alzheimers disease. There are too many pharmaceutical companies, alzheimers organizations, and researchers living off this disease while others are dying from it.</p><p>I believe this is biology's century. I've covered science and medicine for Forbes from the Human Genome Project through Vioxx to the blossoming DNA technology changing the world today. Email me, follow me on Twitter, circle me onGoogle Plus, or subscribe to my Facebook page.</p>"
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