November 14, 2008 Newsletter

Dear CMPI Friends,

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

CMPI NEWS
www.cmpi.org

Obama, Congress Should Learn From Britain’s Healthcare Failings
Washington Examiner
By Peter J. Pitts
November 13, 2008

http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/Obama_Congress_Should_Learn_from_Britains_Healthcare_Failings.html

Obama’s Healthcare Horror: Bad Medicine For A Hopeful Nation
Detroit Free Press
By Robert Goldberg
November 9, 2008

http://www.freep.com/article/20081107/OPINION05/81107087/1068/OPINION

Give More Children Access To Medicines – Letter to the Editor
The Baltimore Sun
By Peter J. Pitts
November 9, 2008

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/letters/bal-ed.le.letters09n13nov09,0,6149183.story

DRUGWONKS BLOG
www.drugwonks.com

Healthcare To The Max
By Peter Pitts
November 12, 2008

Senator Max Baucus, (chairman of the Senate Finance Committee) is proposing legislation to “cover the 47 million uninsured.”

But.

Neither he nor his staff are offering any cost estimates. The plan proposed by President-Elect Obama during the campaign was estimated to cost about $100 billion a year. Any savings from healthcare IT (another urgent need) or follow-on biologics (the price differentials from which will look nothing like small molecule generics) are but a glimmer of future hope in the eyes of the OMB. How are we going to pay for this? Stock options?

http://www.drugwonks.com/blog_post/show/6454

Is The RPM Blog On The Nissen Commissioner Bandwagon
By Robert Goldberg
November 11, 2008

I love the RPM e-letter.

Read more here

But.

What's with the "Steve Nissen isn't so bad" and "would be good for industry" rationalization en route to claming he has the inside track because he's been "vetted" by the Obama campaign to be FDA commissioner?

Sorry for all the quotation marks. Let's go to the RPM post and deconstruct.

"We have no idea if Nissen will end up at FDA—but as an Obama advisor he has already been vetted in case he is picked for some kind of government post. "

Nissen was not an Obama advisor. He was an Obama surrogate and contributed to the Obama campaign and might have sent some materials in as part of a cast of thousands. But "vetted" like a nominee would be vetted? Hardly.

http://www.drugwonks.com/blog_post/show/6453

PHYSICIAN DISEMPOWERMENT CONFERENCE

For those of you unable to attend our October 14 conference on Physician Disempowerment in Washington, DC, here is a link to the video footage of the conference.

Watch Physician Disempowerment Conference here:

http://cmpi.org/home-tabs/newsmakers/feature

Here are the speaker presentations:

Francois Sarkozy, MD, AEC Partners

http://cmpi.org/uploads/File/Sarkozy-Presentation.pdf

Gary E. Applebaum, MD, CMPI Senior Fellow

http://cmpi.org/uploads/File/Dr.%20Gary%20Appleb%E2%80%A6resentation.pdf

Marc Siegel, MD, CMPI Senior Fellow

http://cmpi.org/uploads/File/Dr.%20Marc%20Siegel%E2%80%A6resentation.pdf

INTERNATIONAL ARTICLE OF NOTE

Our Health Service Is Now Worse Than Estonia’s
Daily Mail
November 14, 2008

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1085437/Our-health-service-WORSE-Estonias.html