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Happy New Year!
On
behalf of GlobalDrugsDirect
and all our staff we like to wish you and your family a
Happy New Year!
Did your New Years Resolutions make the top 10 this year?
Every year, people come up with New Years Resolutions,
however only a few of us will follow through with them. Most
of the resolutions that people come up with are fairly common
amongst everybody. The top ten New Years Resolutions,
according to Kimbery & Albrecht Powell from
Pittsburgh,
PA,
are:
1)
Spend
more time with Family & Friends
2)
Fit
in Fitness ?ask your doctor about Xenical,
a weight loss medication.
3)
Tame
the Bulge (Weight Loss)
4)
Quit
Smoking ?try Nicorette
Gum!!
5)
Enjoy
Life More
6)
Quit
Drinking
7)
Get
Out of Debt
8)
Learn
Something new
9)
Help
Others
10) Get
Organized
For tips on making your New Years Resolutions work
visit:
http://thyroid.about.com/library/weightloss/blresolution.htm
>>back to
top
Drug Companies Firing at Medicare Plan
Congress is
certain to push legislation next year that threatens to cut
into drug company profits, but industry executives are
confident they can overcome challenges from incoming
Democratic leaders.
"There
is an assumption that the Democratic ascension will be a
disaster for the industry," Eli Lilly and Company Chief
Executive Officer Sidney Taurel told financial analysts at a
December meeting in
New York. "I believe the
facts point to a more moderate direction."
A
priority for the new Democratic majority is to repeal a clause
in the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act that prevents the
government from negotiating price discounts from drug makers
on behalf of millions of elderly and disabled Americans who
participate in the new Medicare Part D prescription drug
program.
Democrats, and
some Republicans, also are likely to move legislation to make
it legal and safe for Americans to buy cheaper prescription
medicine from pharmacies abroad, such as those in
Canada.
But
the pharmaceutical industry's armada of lobbyists will do all
it can to block both efforts, or at least water them down.
"We'll
continue to oppose ill-advised legislation, such as risky
importation bills that threaten public health and safety,"
said Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
The
industry spends more than any other on federal lobbying,
campaign donations and congressional travel ?more than $1
billion combined since 1998, according to the Center for
Public Integrity.
Democrats
claim that by giving Medicare negotiating power, the program
could win significant discounts from drug makers, enough to
save each beneficiary, about $500 more each year.
The
estimated $61 billion in savings over 10 years could be used
to fill part of a gap in coverage ?known as "the donut hole"
?facing most people participating in the Medicare Part D
prescription drug program.
"I
felt from the very beginning we could have had a better
program that covers more things, such as eliminating the donut
hole," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., a New Jersey Democrat
expected to chair the subcommittee that will be instrumental
in crafting Medicare legislation. "If we negotiate prices,
it's a way to provide more."
The
drug industry says government-mandated prices would threaten
the industry's vital investments in researching and developing
new drugs, estimated at $51.3 billion in 2005. It costs an
estimated $1.2 billion to bring a new drug to market,
according to industry estimates.
The
industry spends approximately double its research budget on
marketing each year ?which includes the cost of fielding a
massive sales force and advertising, which has grown steadily
in recent years.
The
House is expected to repeal the Medicare non-negotiation
clause during its first 100 hours of business in January. In
the Senate, the pace will be slower and less certain.
Senate
Democrats, who hold a 51-49 majority, need 60 votes to end
debate on any controversial bill. And there's the very real
possibility of a veto from President Bush.
Drug
industry lobbyists plan to use two additional arguments to
counter lawmaker attempts to overturn the Medicare
non-negotiation clause.
First,
the Congressional Budget Office, the entity that produces the
official cost and revenue estimates for proposed legislation,
has concluded it's unlikely Medicare would see significant
savings if government managers get authority to negotiate with
drug makers for discounts.
Second,
the year-old Medicare Part D program already is producing
significant savings for consumers, said Jim Greenwood,
president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which
represents more than 1,000 biotechnology companies and
organizations.
The
prices beneficiaries now pay for prescription drugs through
the Medicare program were determined by actual free-market
negotiations,
Greenwood said.
"When
the federal government sets prices, it becomes a political
process and not one based on real, free-market honest
negotiations," said
Greenwood, a former
Pennsylvania Republican congressman.
For
more related articles visit:
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061222/LIFESTYLE06/612220338
>>back to top
Congress vs. Big Pharma: Let the Games Begin
With
its stranglehold on the nation's health care bills and its
record-high profits, including billions from public coffers,
no industry may be an easier target for reform than Big
Pharma. But don't hold your breath for any meaningful reforms
from the next Congress, given that even the most obvious ideas
?such as expanding the Medicare drug benefit and opening the
door to drug imports from
Canada and
elsewhere ?will face unrelenting pushback from the massive
drug lobby. In the end, Congressional Democrats may not
accomplish much to help patients, but they will likely launch
the first serious investigations of the industry in decades.
In
January powerful Michigan Democrat John Dingell will take the
reins of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Sources with
knowledge of the committee's plans say that by February,
Dingell aims to launch several probes of the drug industry,
including a look at fraud in Medicare and Medicaid with
particular focus on the black-market sales of expensive cancer
drugs and other pharmaceuticals. Dingell also wants to
investigate the process by which drugs get approved at the
FDA, and explore the question of imports from
Canada,
where
U.S. drug makers
sell many pharmaceuticals cheaper than they do here.
In
whatever configuration, the issues the new Congress will have
to confront right away include the new Medicare Plan D drug
benefit program. The benefit is administered through various
private plans run by HMOs, the AARP, and others, each of which
negotiates its own prices with drug makers. Critics argue that
as constituted, this program ?the only part of Medicare that
doesn't include price controls ?is a virtual handout to the
drug companies, and that the government could push for much
lower drug prices if it were to negotiate with manufacturers
directly. A number of Congressional freshmen supported this
idea on the campaign trail.
Another
likely agenda item is Plan D's so-called doughnut hole. A
senior can register for the plan and receive coverage for up
to $2400 worth of drugs. After that a senior continues to pay
premiums but gets no coverage until he or she spends about
$3800. Then the insurance picks up
again.
Plan
D is a miasma ?the Bush people like to refer to it as a
marketplace ?of different private plans, some plugging the
doughnut, some closing it part way. According to staffers at
the Center for Medicare Advocacy in
Washington, there is as of
yet no real plan in Congress for plugging the doughnut or
changing the overall plan. Edwin Park, who follows Medicare
for the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington
think tank, says he doubts there will be any quick fixes for
the doughnut hole, in part because of the cost of closing the
gap ?an estimated $400 million over 10 years. Bush is dead
set against removing the marketplace feature and the
Democrats, with their narrow margins, would have a hard time
overriding a veto. Thus, some health advocates think that
while Congress won't allow the government to negotiate prices
wholesale, they might let the government enter the Plan D
market as another buyer alongside the existing private plans.
A
second confrontation may come over the import of cheaper drugs
from
Canada. Democratic
Senator Byron Dorgan of
South Dakota has taken the
lead on this issue; last July, Senate Democrats voted to
permit Canadian imports. Bush has promised to veto such
legislation, should it ever pass; meanwhile, the Canadian drug
industry is preparing to press Ottawa to ban cheap exports to
the United States, a move that would leave patients turning to
Latin America and elsewhere.
"My
main hope is exposure,'' says Dr. Sidney Wolfe, who heads
Public Citizen's Health Research Group. Even if reform
legislation were to pass in this Congress, he notes, "it would
be almost guaranteed to face a presidential veto." More
likely, he says, investigations today will pave the way for
reform later.
For
more information on this article written by James Ridgeway, a
journalist from Mother Jones magazine, visit:
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2006/12/big_pharma.html
>>back to
top
Your Comments
"I have been
ordering Actenol (a drug to help bone health) through
you. I live in
California. I recently
changed doctors. When I told him I was getting my
Actenol through
Canada, he was concerned
because there apparently had been something on 60
Minutes saying that drugs made in
Canada couldn't
always be trusted.
Anyway, I had my bone density retested after two years
on Actenol. The doctor was totally amazed at the
improvement in my bone health. He said a lot of his
patients asked what Canadian company could be trusted and he
hadn't known what to tell them. But he will be
recommending your company now.
Thanks for making
my drugs more affordable, because I have to pay for them out
of my own pocket - I have a $4,000 deductible."
TH
"I
AM GETTING MORE OF MY DRUGS FROM YOU. TWO DRUGS MY
HUSBAND TAKES DRIVES HIM INTO THE "DONUT HOLE". THANKS
FOR THE GOOD WORK AND THE FAST RESPONSE TO OUR DRUGS
NEEDS."
MS
"Being self
employed, I can't afford to be out sick with allergies/sinus
problems. I can get the medicines I need at unbelievable
prices and I thank you for your kind and speedy service from
the bottom of my heart.
You are always quick to ship my refills and I've yet to
experience a lapse in my medicines. You ship fast and
precise and I think what you do for us here in the
U.S. is phenomenal.
I have nothing but the best to say about your company and I
will always be a customer of yours."
JH
>>back to top
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