Ella Does Squamish

took place today.  It looked like a mama bear in size.  She/he was running across the road in suburban Squamish. 

CNN interview W/ FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-157504887441456856&hl=en


"Killer Bureaucracy" , FDA, Provenge, Dendreon  Fox News
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2869314442027639048&hl=en

Patients Fight for Provenge. CNBC , Mike Huckman
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2167383659619688797&q=cliffhucker&hl=en


posted by cliffhucker

Update from cliffhucker -

I am sorry but Google has taken my links down due possible to copyright issues.

I have however found those and others which are at there originators websites.

Please go to my Blog @
http://provenge.blogspot.com/

And look in the post “Audio/Video Links”

Thanks!

The ambitious $2m project, christened Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, will roll out an encyclopaedia of the country’s traditional medicine in five languages - English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish - in an effort to stop people from claiming them as their own and patenting them.

The tulsi (holy basil) plant has medicinal qualities

The electronic encyclopaedia, which will be made available next year, will contain information on the traditional medicines, including exhaustive references, photographs of the plants and scans from the original texts.

Indian scientists say the country has been a victim of what they describe as "bio-piracy" for a long time.

"When we put out this encyclopaedia in the public domain, no one will be able to claim that these medicines or therapies are their inventions. Till now, we have not done the needful to protect our traditional wealth," says Ajay Dua, a senior bureaucrat in the federal commerce ministry.

Dr Vinod Kumar Gupta, who is leading the traditional wealth encyclopaedia project and heads India’s National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (Niscair), reckons that of the nearly 5,000 patents given out by the US Patent Office on various medical plants by the year 2000, some 80% were plants of Indian origin.

India has been embroiled in some high-profile patent litigation in the past decade - the government spent some $6m alone in fighting legal battles against the patenting of turmeric and neem-based medicines.

In 1995, the US Patent Office granted a patent on the wound-healing properties of turmeric.

Indian scientists protested and fought a two-year-long legal battle to get the patent revoked.

India got a patent on turmeric, used in curries, revoked

Last year, India won a 10-year-long battle at the European Patent Office against a patent granted on an anti-fungal product, derived from neem, by successfully arguing that the medicinal neem tree is part of traditional Indian knowledge.

In 1998 the US Patent Office granted patent to a local company for new strains of rice similar to basmati, which has been grown for centuries in the Himalayan foothills of north-west India and Pakistan and has become popular internationally. After a prolonged legal battle, the patent was revoked four years ago.

from http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070521/wyethelanmover.html?.v=1

AP

Wyeth, Elan Shares Jump on Study Plans
Monday May 21, 10:41 am ET

Wyeth and Elan Shares Rise on Plans for Late-Stage Study on Alzheimer’s Treatment Candidate

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of drug developers Wyeth and Elan Corp. jumped Monday after the companies said they plan on asking for approval to move their Alzheimer’s treatment candidate bapineuzumab into late-stage studies.

…

The companies were waiting for Food and Drug Administration approval to move the drug candidate into Phase III clinical trials, with expectations for a start date in the second half of 2007, months ahead of the previous outlook. Results from the mid-stage, or Phase II, clinical trials aren’t expected until 2008.

….

Unlike current drugs that treat the symptoms, the new class is aimed at stopping the development of amyloid plaques in the brain and treating what is believed to be the cause of the condition.

 

ED. - Great news as it looks like the Phase II results are promising.  One step closer to another treatment for AD.

 

ED.  I attended a ’seniors day’ fair some years ago and filled in a sweepstakes form.  Within a week, I was receiving phone calls from a local time-share outfit.  I complained to the organizers of the fair. 

RCMP probe US senior scams

Toronto link alleged in use of database lists to plunder cash from frail hands

May 21, 2007 04:30 AM, CHARLES DUHIGG, New York Times

The thieves operated from small offices in Toronto and hangar-size rooms in India. Every night, working from lists, they called World War II veterans, retired teachers and thousands of other elderly Americans and posed as government and insurance workers updating their files.

Then, the criminals emptied their victims’ bank accounts.

Richard Guthrie, a 92-year-old U.S. Army veteran, was one of those victims. He ended up on scam artists’ lists because his name, like millions of others, was sold by large companies to telemarketing criminals, who then turned to major banks to steal his life’s savings.

The Iowa resident had entered a few sweepstakes that caused his name to be added to a database advertised by InfoUSA, a major compiler of consumer information. InfoUSA sold data on elderly Americans to known lawbreakers, regulators say.

InfoUSA advertised lists of "Elderly Opportunity Seekers," 3.3 million elders "looking for ways to make money," and "Suffering Seniors," 4.7 million people with cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. "Oldies but Goodies" contained 500,000 gamblers over 55, for 8.5 cents apiece. One list said: "These people are gullible. They want to believe that their luck can change."

As Guthrie sat home alone - surrounded by his Purple Heart medal, photos of eight children and mementos of a wife buried nine years earlier - the telephone rang day and night.

"I loved getting those calls," he said in an interview. "Since my wife passed away, I don’t have many people to talk with. I didn’t even know they were stealing from me until everything was gone."

continued ….

InfoUSA maintains records on 210 million Americans, according to its website. In 2006, it collected more than $430 million from clients like Reader’s Digest, Publishers Clearinghouse and Condé Nast.

But InfoUSA has also sold lists to a variety of marketers with more dubious intentions, including World Marketing Service, a company that a U.S. judge shut down in 2003 for running a lottery scam.

With files from Philip Mascoll

© Copyright Toronto Star online since 1996

Smoking Lily and Front & Co.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts - set in Bombay (mostly); what a story-teller … I lauged and I cried.

see http://www.shantaram.com/ (I see that Johnny Depp has optioned the movie rights).

Sylvanus Now by Donna Morrissey (I haven’t read her other book Kit’s Law) - 1950s, set in Newfoundland, the sad story of the decline in the fish stocks and a disappearing way of life.