Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Less than two weeks ago, the New York Times (“Report Illumintes Wide Divide…“) reported that FDA has denied that there are any medicinal benefits to marijuana. The article continues stating: While it has always been the drug enforcement agency’s policy to enforce laws against marijuana, [DEA spokeswomen] Ms. Waite said, “now it’s clearly out there,…
Pharmaceutical companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars in order to gain FDA approval for their products. A biologist at the FDA headquarters makes between $38 and $86 thousand. The diffeence between these two sums is emormous; thus, it would not be surprising if the FDA was ripe with corruption. Sure enough, the New York…
My friend and General Electric financial analyst Matt Janner is currently working in Dubai. He has sent me some wonderful articles about the emirate and one of its newest investments: “Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC).” Here is a brief summary of what I have gleaned from these articles. Dubai is one of the fastest growing cities…
Today, most news sources’ headline story was “The Day without Immigrants.” From Los Angeles to New York to my hometown of Milwaukee, thousands marched to protest proposed immigration laws. NPR’s Marketplace radio show (“One home, Two nations“) has a wonderful portrayal of two friends–Francisco Castro and Luis Molina–and their decision of whether or not to…
Zeyad is a Baghdad-based dentist, and the author of the Healing Iraq blog. In his post on The Guardian website, Zeyad describes how corruption is siphoning off medical supplies from physicians who need them for patient care. Even in areas where terrorism is not a problem, the health care is still abismal. Zeyad states: “The…
Not everyone is like me and enjoys employing the discipline of economics in their research. On the Gendergeek blog, the author claims in her Geek-onomics post that: It worries me that so much of the heavily gendered distortions of modern economics, in conjunction with its methodological fetishism, is unnoticed or ignored. Economics could turn out…
Yesterday was the NFL Draft. It is a day of hope where teams can look to their future and see a potential Pro-Bowl individual joining their cadre of players. For instance my favorite team, the Green Bay Packers, selected linebacker A.J. Hawk from Ohio State University. The team was considering trading their number 5 pick…
According to the PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) U.S. drug companies spent $39.4 billion on research and development in 2005. Much of this money goes towards the clinical trials necessary for FDA approval. But how much does it cost to bring a drug to market? In order to bring a drug to market,…
It is a great achievement that China has one of the highest life expectancy rates (72.6) of any country in the developing world. However, the CIA World Factbook reports that “One demographic consequence of the ‘one child’ policy is that China is now one of the most rapidly aging countries in the world.” The Demography…
Currently the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program covers almost 8 million Americans. The program is designed to help those who need assistance the most: those who cannot work due to disability. These individuals are entitled to approximately $830 per month. One feature of SSDI is that it has an implicit 100% tax on earnings.…