A new ultra-dense element has been discovered by scientists. This element cannot be penetrated by anything, including well-reason logic. The largest concentration of this new element is beleived to be in the vacinity of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., in Washington, D.C., although other large concentrations are now known to exist. It is also believed that this element may be scattered in small quantities throughout the entire world.
So, heres the deal. Bush decided to go over and "liberate" Iraq. When he went over, he had the backing of congress. No surprise there, since congress was full of elephants.
He got Prime Minister Blair to send some of his troops over as well.
Now that the war has been going on for several years, the Brittish commanders set a deadline for troop withdrawals. They told the Iraqi government, "this is when we're leaving. You better be ready." So the Iraqi soldiers got their rears in gear and were ready to defend their country when the Brittish left.
But Bush, in all his brilliance, keeps saying that he won't go until the Iraqis are ready. Now think about it. If you have someone helping you, and they say that they will stay until you don't need them anymore, how much motivation will you have to get to the point where you don't need their help? Of course its easier to just let them do the work.
The asses in congress, though they may be, have realized this. They see the need to set a definite date for troop withdrawals so that the Iraqis will realize, "hey, they might actuall leave and we'll have to take over."
But Bush doesn't like this. He claims that he will veto any defense spending bill that has a withdrawal deadline. However, the congress has a Democrat majority, who keep saying that they will only pass a bill that has a withdrawal deadline.
So who will win? My bet is, congress. Congress has the power of the purse strings. Bush's war money is going to run out sooner or later. Of course, this won't be his fault; he will be pinning the blame on congress for not giving him money, so the failure of the war is their fault.
Bush has said hes willing to sit down and talk with the congressional leaders, by which he means he wants to hear them say that they will do it his way.
Even with this proposed deadline for withdrawal, and the Democratic-lead congress, I'm not so sure that a defense spending bill would be voted down party lines. Bush has been losing many faithful Republicans due to his wonderful management of the country, and I'm guessig that many Republicans will be voting with the Democrats in favor of a definite deadline for troop withdrawal. The Democratic majority may be able to get the initial bill passed, but it will take a two-thirds majority to override Bush's veto.
2007-04-11
2007-04-03
We are all on drugs, yeah....
So, this semesters, I'm doing my paramedic pharmacology class. For part of this, we have to write a term paper on something drug-related. In doing this, I discovered some things that even surprised me.
It takes an average of 12 years to develop a new drug, from formulation to FDA approval. However, the pharamceutical company must file for it's patent on the drug once the new formulation is created. This patent is only good for 20 years, and cannot be renewed upon commercial viability. So, 12 years on this 20-year patent is gone by the time a company can actually sell the drug.
After this formulation, the drug company starts animal testing. This determines the potential safety and efficacy of the drug.
After this pre-clinical phase has shown some potential for the drug, the company must file an investigational application with the FDA before it can begin human testing.
By the time the drug company is ready to submit an official application for the drug, it will have conducted research on nearly 5,000 people in a minimum of three seperate double-blind clinical studies. The final FDA approval process then takes up to three years before the manufacturer finally receives permission to sell the drug.
So at the end of this process, the drug company only has about 8 years of exclusive rights to market the drug that has cost the pharma company nearly $1,000,000,000 to develop. However, there is a chance that even after this one-billion dollar drug has made it past clinical trials, the FDA will not grant approval.
And only about 1/3 of all new compounds will ever make it past the second clinical trial. So for every drug that is approved at a cost of one billion dollars, about 2 drugs will never make it to approval stage, each at a cost of about $100,000,000.
Then you see the commercials about how "grandma shouldn't have to decide between eating and taking her pills." Have you ever stopped to think about what people did before they had all these pills? And how many of grandma's problems are caused by other pills, so the doctor gives her another prescription to fix the side effect of this prescription, and soon grandma is taking a handful of pills each day, just because the doctor told her to.
The next time you see a politcal ad about the need for stricter regulation on the pharmaceutical companies, just think about the 1.2 billion dollar price tag on that little pill up in the cabinet. If you start to limit the money that drug companies can make, you take away their incentive to develop new drugs.
It takes an average of 12 years to develop a new drug, from formulation to FDA approval. However, the pharamceutical company must file for it's patent on the drug once the new formulation is created. This patent is only good for 20 years, and cannot be renewed upon commercial viability. So, 12 years on this 20-year patent is gone by the time a company can actually sell the drug.
After this formulation, the drug company starts animal testing. This determines the potential safety and efficacy of the drug.
After this pre-clinical phase has shown some potential for the drug, the company must file an investigational application with the FDA before it can begin human testing.
By the time the drug company is ready to submit an official application for the drug, it will have conducted research on nearly 5,000 people in a minimum of three seperate double-blind clinical studies. The final FDA approval process then takes up to three years before the manufacturer finally receives permission to sell the drug.
So at the end of this process, the drug company only has about 8 years of exclusive rights to market the drug that has cost the pharma company nearly $1,000,000,000 to develop. However, there is a chance that even after this one-billion dollar drug has made it past clinical trials, the FDA will not grant approval.
And only about 1/3 of all new compounds will ever make it past the second clinical trial. So for every drug that is approved at a cost of one billion dollars, about 2 drugs will never make it to approval stage, each at a cost of about $100,000,000.
Then you see the commercials about how "grandma shouldn't have to decide between eating and taking her pills." Have you ever stopped to think about what people did before they had all these pills? And how many of grandma's problems are caused by other pills, so the doctor gives her another prescription to fix the side effect of this prescription, and soon grandma is taking a handful of pills each day, just because the doctor told her to.
The next time you see a politcal ad about the need for stricter regulation on the pharmaceutical companies, just think about the 1.2 billion dollar price tag on that little pill up in the cabinet. If you start to limit the money that drug companies can make, you take away their incentive to develop new drugs.
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