Five drugs normally costing $10-$20 were regularly marked up to prices of $200 or more through the gray market was found by an investigation of Congress. This is scary and sad as a drug that would normally cost $10 goes for as much as $500 on the gray market. Jay Rockefeller lead the investigation. The folks on the gray side know when shortages are near or current and seem to get their hands on them ahead of time. Who gets stuck paying the high prices, hospitals. None of the gray marketing companies would testify in Congress either as they know what they are doing is not right.
So what happens, read the link below and see how hospitals are dealing with this and UCLA for example spends over 2 hours a day to find the drugs, whether it be sharing with other hospitals or buying gray market products. By contrast there’s no shortage of Botox or Viagra. BD
Drug Shortages Continue–UCLA Spends 2 Hours A Day Checking on Cancer Drug Availability–ASHP Website Lists All Current Shortages
Some US pharmacies are selling their entire inventories to "gray" marketers, who make enormous profits by buying hard-to-find drugs and re-selling them at huge mark-ups, a joint Congressional investigation has found.
Moreover, prescription drugs had leaked into the gray market through pharmacies in 69% of the distribution chains examined for the probe. "Instead of dispensing the drugs in accordance with their professional duties, state laws and the expectations of their trading partners," the pharmacies had resold them to gray wholesalers, says the report of the investigation, which was begun last autumn by Representative Elijah Cummings, ranking member (Democrat) of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
He also noted that that not even the gray market companies are willing to defend this "disgusting and indefensible" form of "price gouging."
"I invited the five companies we looked at in this investigation to testify at this hearing. They all declined my invitation. They know what they're doing is wrong," he said.
- In May, Rep Cummings introducing legislation aimed at lacking the problem. His Gray Market Reform and Transparency Act of 2012 would, among other measures, prohibit wholesalers from buying drugs from pharmacies and create a national wholesaler database that would allow state boards of pharmacy to share information more easily and monitor enforcement actions in other states.
Hat Tip: PharmaGossip
http://www.pharmatimes.com/Article/12-07-31/Some_US_pharmacies_selling_entire_inventories_to_gray_market.aspx?
and that is not due to the fact that it was a bad law, it’s good law, but for goodness sakes talk intelligently and address areas that need change and stop the over all repeal, it’s not doing the GOP any favors. I agree that the law needs amendments in some area as the economy delegates this and even the President says the same thing as guess what, nothing remains the same and as changes happen, address them. We live in a digital world and thus so need some digital law formats and today without violating the Bill of Rights, get with it! 
that would help our Congress make better laws, but let’s do the “control issue” about abortions, waste of time and money. Does anyone wonder why Congress looks so bad? They don’t even know a tool when it is presented to them. Use a system like IBM Watson and query and get all the information first and then break into committees and everyone will at least have heard the same thing and have the same starting point. Do we do this, nope default topic of abortions rules all and we get nowhere, get over it. Personally I laugh my fanny off every time the big “A” word comes up and is debated when there are much more important issues that need attention. BD 
and the smart pill received separate approvals from the FDA. There’s also a smart patch which reports back to the Proteus system and that part has been approved. See who the big investors are here with the product, none other that Novartis and Medtronic. I remember it was reported that Novartis has $24 million invested so I am not sure if there are others and the amount contributed by Medtronic. 
of this and gave their approval back in August of 2010. So now the chip can send even more information and is made out of minerals found in food, such as copper, magnesium and silicon. There’s no battery on the chip and we kind of all can figure out where the exit point is when done. As I read this, the minute the pill hits your stomach, it gets powered for action right there when it gets wet. The chip is placed on your pills you take for prescriptions. I would guess that drugs made by Novartis could be the first ones to be in line to carry the chip? Here’s a video of a company representative explaining how this works and you can “share” with other folks who have similar conditions. I don’t know if I’m ready to share what goes on in my stomach and bowels with others yet, maybe more information than some may want to know. BD 
monitor medication adherence. The de novo medical device, which the company refers to as an ingestible event marker (IEM), can monitor the timing of drug ingestion in the stomach and relay that information to a patch worn on the body. The patch also can track heart rate, activity levels, and sleep patterns, and relay such information, as well as information regarding drug compliance to caregivers via text message or e-mail. In addition, the device can be used to send text reminders to patients who forgot to take a pill on time. 
over and over and over. If Walgreens wanted to promote their products, why in the world do they not advertise directly with bloggers instead of this nonsense, and nonsense it is. I could care less if I ever made the BlogHer list after having reviewed what I saw today. It’s costs money to go to the conference as well and what am I going to get out of it, not much in my opinion. This marketing effort was directed at me to go to the Perrigo booth so they could pass along some products to me…says so right in the email body so I can stock my medicine cabinet. All they want me to do to enter the contest is “get my social networks fired up” and frankly the content I put out here has no relativity. 
money that way without the expensive middle folks in here as well. The poor marketing person who sent me this solicitation probably has no clue as well so not picking one person here by any means at they just pull a list and market, and market and market, as that’s the job description given to them. Back on the topics of books, here’s a good one that I enjoyed and you may be a little less naïve after reading it as well. Find out how formulas for spun marketing work and recognize them in full operation every day around you. Once you know what to look for it’s not that hard. 
up some free Walgreens brand medications from our BlogHer booth “drugstore”. Perrigo Company (
many hospitals he worked at the the cath lab. He was taking the pain killing drug to inject into himself and then the syringes were re-used giving the patient something other than the pain medication they were prescribed. 30 people alone in New Hampshire were infected and the hospital in Arizona fired him but when taking a drug test two years ago he passed it. Another employee found him passed out and he flushed the syringe down the toilet. He lost his license in Arizona, then moved out of state and went to work in other hospitals. 
due to a stolen computer with company personnel sharing actual patient data with investors on Wall Street. The link below can bring you up to date. As Steven Colbert called them the “debt panels”. I hope the patients get some restitution out of all of this. The attorney though for the company is pretty confident I must say from reading this article as he says it was easier to settle as doing business in the state was becoming too difficult? Oh well, just one more corporate excuse. 
Attorney General could not identify a single patient who had been abused, so I guess he doesn’t read the news as we saw plenty interviewed and quite a few who spoke out. He must be getting one huge fee to cover this case. The company was not even responsive to Congress either, so again sound quite arrogant to me. Sure someone can like their business algorithms but if ethics are compromised in the act then what do we have? 
that took place over this company and it’s not going anywhere but things will be much more difficult and not to mention they have some tough competition today. They made history for sure with their drug and the new treatment to extend lives of men who have prostate cancer but by the time the politics and banks got done with all of it, this is where we are. Here’s one example from 2011 and in August of that year there were questions of whether or not their projections would be met. Nice move on the part of the CEO here, for him anyway? 
Each year the Black Hat and Defcon conferences are held in Las Vegas, back to back and hackers and others demonstrate vulnerabilities. These conferences have come a long way since their beginnings to where they were considered a bit of a nuisance to now as we had the US National Security Director in attendance trying to hire some of these folks. In addition, companies like Apple and Microsoft certainly attend as they too are looking for knowledge and vulnerabilities found by others outside the company. Here’s an example of a clinic using the “Iris” identification method. It certainly does it’s job well but and works well, but again this is warning and more work for the biometric company in the area of security. 
eye, so again this goes back to a statement of wisdom made by another security expert, “those who have the code rule the world”. It’s kind of scary but if you missed this post and video on how criminals use technology, it is worth watching for awareness and not to set everyone off in a panic by all means, but the dark side does exist. Again, this is how technology works, looking for the “code for your eye” not your actual eye. 
with not humans but rather “code” making the call and why we need formulas that give “accurate” results versus “desired” results and the two should be the same, but not always, just read the financial news today and it lives amongst us though, but hard to find and identify as it works in the background and there’s nobody minding the shop with checking for accuracy. Quants get busted with formulas that do not give accurate information and sometimes what gets even a bit scarier is that they themselves believe their own formulas are correct as the code makes profit for them. When formulas are created and marketing media spins the reports that go along with the algorithms, you get a bit of a mess out there. BD 
in the credits. These are real doctors and nurses from the NHS. As you read on the web, sure they have issues as does any organization but if outside the NHS, you don’t criticize the NHS as in reality they are very happy to have free health services and look at what we have in the US by comparison. When you watch you see the beds all come together to form NHS. This was very well done with Mike Oldfield with Tubular Bells. 
insurance companies and so on make billions with a little code out there on the internet, while companies such as Cook can’t afford to expand and make life saving medical devices. Back when the law was written things were different but a lot happens in a couple of years. Just look at how rich the banks are for one and corporate profits on public companies have been at all time highs. Nobody has to admit they made a mistake with the law, just fix it to work with current economic times. 
the US too, so give that some real thought. Look at what they say about the device tax, will raise over $30 billion in a decade, well shoot tax the data sellers and you could probably hit that number in 5 years or less, half the amount of time. That’s why it makes sense to pursue another route and keep the tangible companies in business in the US. Who knows a company such as Cook could probably even jump in with a generic device division for commonly used nut and bolts as are used in back surgeries, etc. as that’s what is beginning to happen and we still win with jobs here in the US to make them.
entered the picture so strongly, the choices are getting fewer and the association here states the contract did not have federal approval. CVS was put on notice that they would no longer be reimbursed for Medicaid prescriptions. WellPoint just bought Amerigroup for just under $5 billion. Contract says to patients shift gears again. They did say other independent pharmacies and other chains would be added…wait till the contract business intelligence numbers are calculated to see which ones I guess. BD 
improve cardiovascular health. Amarin's product development program leverages its extensive experience in lipid science and the potential therapeutic benefits of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Vascepa™ (icosapent ethyl) capsules is Amarin's first FDA approved product. Vascepa is a patented, ultra-pure omega-3 fatty acid, comprising not less than 96% EPA (icosapent ethyl) in a capsule.” 
lot of PHR 
AIMIA gathering, MMR plans on meeting with software and hardware manufacturers regarding the integration of its products and services into telemedicine systems and 4G devices as imbedded apps. The invitations followed last week's news release with the Company's Australian licensee VisiInc PLC to launch a unified Personal Health Record incorporating some of MMR's Australian patented health IT solutions. 
Now this is a bit long over due but very welcome in my opinion. The Institute for Humanism is concerned that the Affordable Care Act will divert attention from the doctor-patient relationship. Have we not all looked for compassion in healthcare at some point and find it missing? 
“That idea was conceived in response to a disturbing trend.
Burgeoning scientific discoveries and advances in technology seemed to dwarf the interest of taking care of people who were ill, suffering and/or dying. Physician trainees were scientifically proficient and technically well-trained, but often demonstrated a sad lack of caring and compassion. Dr. Gold decided, with Sandra Gold's help and prodding, to do something about it” 
we are almost all learning to live with it, but with healthcare it’s critical. Obviously it sounds like a failover to another data center was not in the picture either as that is normally what happens when one goes down, the other takes over and there’s no interruption of service. I do want to hear what the “human error” was here when it comes out. There are other glitches around to, but maybe not as critical such as this one, which delayed attesting for stimulus money for some with GE which related back to a SAP software issue. What is the back up plan in most cases, grab the pencil and paper until the system is live again. 
Yes it is the business intelligence software that helps government and companies on figuring where to cut money, where to move company branches, and so on. Also looking here at what has been reported, look at how varied the cuts are as well. No wonder it’s hard to figure out what is covered and what is not from state to state. Again if we began taxing the data sellers/brokers it would certainly stand to add a lot more money to the Medicaid pot. BD 
Also too, I don’t know how it is in other parts of the country, but hospitals here in southern California employee a lot of nurses from the Philippines as their training they receive there is up to US standards, unlike other countries such as Mexico. The article below was from 2010 where layoffs and outsourcing of jobs took place in North Carolina with Blue Cross. All the action when it comes to profits and business intelligence as far as where to cut, move and so forth comes from those algorithms to create business models. Sourcecorp was the company named in handling this contract. 
directed. There’s specific software marketed to some of the countries where English is not the native language and read this below to find out more as the folks in the call centers are given signals via the software to tell your “current state”. So this is what we get, folks outside the US assisted by some voice algorithms to help us out with customer service and other issues. 
Granted is is nice that the hospitals chipped in here and again one does wonder if the forgiveness includes those who do have health insurance? It does make one wonder about the bills and why such a statement came out if there was not some concern for perhaps some of the victims not having insurance. Stay tuned as I guess we could more on this later. Michael Moore somewhat addressed this question in his recent interview with Pierce Morgan. Two of the hospitals have not made a public statement yet on covering the emergency care. Charity funds have also been established to help the victims and one would guess contributions would be toward the cost of medical bills incurred. 
A few years ago I had the chance to speak with Dr. Bart Muhs about this procedure and this certainly looks to improve the precision versus having to use an X-Ray which is pretty much what most do unless in the last couple of years they have upgraded to new systems that monitor with better imaging. 
robotics, today announced FDA 510(k) clearance has been granted for the CorPath 200 System to be used in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI). The technology is now approved in the United States to assist interventional cardiologists in performing PCI, a procedure to restore blood flow to blocked arteries in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).