Ron and all,

I asked Dr. Todd Sherer, Vice President of Fox Foundation's Research Programs about the blood brain barrier, one on one during the break, and got an interesting reply. They have done a few studies on it; he was not able to call it the primary problem, although he agrees that it does play a role. At this point he was unable to say yet whether our medication was helping or hurting the blood brain barrier. As we already knew, most studies are about how to get around the blood brain barrier. I aksed if this research was in its early stages and he said yes. I told him your thoughts about how it could cause illnesses based on where it was porous and he did not disagree, but instead said, he thought this is an area not researched enough and agreed that researching it could yield valuable information. It was a good give and take conversation, as I expected it to be.

The Foundation's presentation was almost exactly the same as our Pipeline presentation, describing the pipeline process and how we can help by considering participation. However, Debi Brooks, the CEO, vastly underestimates patient contributions and what patients that are prepared and informed can contribute. MJFF still has a ways to go on that. If they dug a little deeper, they'd find that we already ARE doing what they always recommend. Inform, educate people about drug development, research, and clinical trials.

And so we, all of us here, press on.......
Paula