PATENT WOES THREATENING DRUG FIRMS

In a March 6, 2011 report in the New York Times by Duff Wilson he writes about the pending problems for pharmaceutical companies with expiring patents.   He cites reasons like lack of new breakthroughs, pressure to hold down prices, and regulatory hurdles.

What he fails to put into context is how this issue fits in with the entire Health Care Cost problem.   As I wrote in my overview report, the reason these companies were able to produce all these great drugs was that we had a system that encouraged unlimited spending on new technologies because whatever was invented could be sold at any price, since the people paying for it like the government and employers, were not the people using it.  

If I were writing this story, I would not only mention the pressures to hold down prices, but I would explain how companies like Pfizer benefited from years of a system that gave them a blank check for R&D and how that helped create the great medical technologies that are now available.  I would also convey how these great products contributed to the unaffordable health care system we have today.   Thus, as a result of incredible products that became unaffordable, those paying for medical care like the government and employers were forced to put in place benefit and control systems that increase the risk for companies to spend money on R&D.  Drug companies don’t have many new products and advances that improve medical care will slow down.

However, I do believe that sensible reform legislation as I recommended in my overview to bring transparency and free market forces into the health care system will be better for all of us, including the medical industry, and result in better care and products.

RESTAURANT BOOTHS, LIMOUSINES, AND MICHIGAN LEFTS

3 subjects where I find I am in a small minority of people:

RESTAURANT BOOTHS

For some reason a large majority of people like to sit in a booth.   When being seated in a restaurant the host or hostess always seems caught off guard when I refuse a booth in favor of a table.   Why is a booth better for so many people?   In a booth you have to frequently crawl in.  The height of the seating in relation to the table is frequently improperly designed.  You are stuck with whatever distance they have established between the bench and the table, which is usually too tight or too far away.   Though I don’t mind helping the server, it’s always awkward for them to place dishes and clear – given the distances they must reach.  And in most cases it seems you are crowded too closely together on the bench.    I am aware that some like the intimacy of a booth and I will occassionally be compelled to test it out first and make sure the other factors don’t tip the balance – which they usually do.

On the other hand, a table  usually isn’t so crowding.  And if 4 people are seated around a table it’s easier to talk to each other.   You don’t have to do any crawling.  The server has better access to most areas of the table.  The chair/table height relationship is usually better.  You can actually adjust the distance of the chair to the table.   And now that I think about it, you don’t have to wonder what’s down there in the dark spaces!   

So for me it’s a mystery as to why people like to sit in a booth.

LIMOUSINES

Some years ago a customer invited my son and I to go skiing near Lake Tahoe.   He had a car pick us up at the airport.  It was a very long limousine.   The two of us felt so silly sitting so far back in that car by ourselves.   When we had to return to the airport, I asked our host if they could arrange a regular car and he seemed surprised that I didn’t like the limousine.  What is it about long limousines that attracts people to notice them and feel special to be driven in them?

Usually people use these services when they are going in groups and are typically dressed in suits or formal wear.   But the car doesn’t have regular doors.   You get all dressed up.  Take your date or wife out for the night, and then have to crawl around inside the car to get to the seat.   Why is that a good thing?   A limo-van seems so much more practical!

MICHIGAN LEFTS

Many people outside of Michigan know about our left turn system and seem to laugh about the Michigan Lefts as they call them.   Busy streets typically have boulevards.  To turn left onto these streets you  turn right first, then turn left into the boulevard turnaround and make your left turn.    This way you turn right onto a one-way street, and then turn left onto a one-way street.  

The alternative is a typical intersection in Southern Florida where 12 lanes come together into a huge intersection loaded with traffic lights.  You wait and wait until it’s your turn to enter the intersection and make your left turn.   I prefer the Michigan system!