Apotex closed down all of Canada's sinemet production four months AFTER Merck declared a world-wide shortage.

Co-incidence.

But there is no shortage of sinemet.
You just gotta pay black market prices, that's all.

And some of 'dem guys wot is on one side ob da fence is on da udder side on da fence at de same tyme !!!
Some folks gotta pharma job AND a cool website where you don't even need a prescription.
Some folks is lucky like that.

Competition between Parkinson’s researchers world-wide to devise new, simplified methods of explaining to the public just what, exactly, are they doing.

Merck’s submission: how PWP can open curtains without getting up:
(repeat submission from last year)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RouXygRcRC4

International videos submitted: Parkinson’s cognitive test: recite from memory the actions that happen in this video while counting backwards by 7’s (the more the disease progresses, the more difficulty you will have):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kvdq8cRNBM

no connection between the posts lol, just coincidental timing.


paula

3000 posts by Paula.
Knowledge, passion, endurance, faith; and for us, all for free; 3000 letters from one of the foremost leaders of PWP in the real world.
Paula, you are an inspiration to us all.
You taught us all that maybe we don't have to shout, but for sure, for sure, we do not have to whisper.
Paula, thank you, and allow us to embrace you with gratitude. Oh, and by the way, I won't forget the Amgen betrayal.

i didn't say it wouldn't be a challenge....
thanks bob

(I asked Lindy if I should fire off a blazing polemic to Merck; she told me that some diplomacy is going on.) I wrote to Lindy:

Lindy, That is what I figured, and what I hope, that the U.K. Parkies make a serious run at it, and it is a big relief to hear you say that they are stepping up to the plate. Rule Britannia, Britannia waive the rules! Go for it Parkinson's U.K. org!!! We are with you all the way. We do NOT expect miraculous results or that the world changes tomorrow morning before breakfast; but it is already, right now, a great victory that Parkinson's patients are starting to talk to the other groups, -scientists and neuros and docs especially, who should ALL be working together. This is an important moment. I don't know who all is involved - at Neurotalk it is amazing the range and variety of ability that is available - there's yourself and Linda and I don't know who else working on this across the Atlantic - I praise you for your diplomatic skills - it has been pointed out from time to time that I am not always entirely diplomatic, so I leave it to you and all the Parkie Brits; you are making a contribution to PWP world-wide; and Parkies need to come in contact with each other world-wide. Myself, I will stay in the reserve platoon far back from the front lines - just remember to call on me if you need a flame-thrower or anything like that. Congratulations to all of you who have stirred up the Winston Churchill spirit once again. Some chicken! Some neck!

Oh, I did send some career advice to Doc. Robinson, which I am sure he found edifying, and I also succeeded in identifying the extent to which the entire Parkinson's Industry appears to be a very big Monty Python skit, but this was personal advice I was offering him; not in any way official, and my question to Lindy was whether or not I should continue along those lines, or behave, and we agreed that, in Britain especially, a certain amount of decorum is expected, and nobody understands the British, except the British. So I will cheer on Parkinson's U.K.. what PWP in Britain are doing is the start of some new conversations and that is a door that is opening, where previously there was no door at all.

http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/1000...=shell;content

…..Although some stolen drugs may be sold on the street or by dubious internet operations, much of it is resold back to the original pharmacies they were intended for.
…sweet chemical relief when you’re sick or in pain, underneath the white coat is a cutthroat business riddled with crooks. About 34 percent of pharmacies have rogue employees who steal merchandise or cash, according to this survey, and 44 percent of chains reported employee theft….
…..Dozens of smaller pharmaceutical wholesale companies were calling, desperate to buy his drugs. These secondary or “grey market” wholesalers scour the country and the world for low-price drugs they can sell back to major wholesalers for a profit. In addition to trawling for institutional pharmacies, some secondary wholesalers have been known to purchase counterfeit drugs from criminal organizations in places such as China, Thailand or Colombia…
… create a supply chain that is complex, convoluted and, at times, vulnerable. The more frequently a drug changes hands, the greater the chance that counterfeit or diverted drugs can enter the legitimate supply chain…

bob, please read the articles cited, they also describe in detail how drug mfg's are trying to reduce theft and counterfeit drugs. do you have any idea what it would cost to rfid track every drug bottle?
criminals go where the money is. oil gets stolen from wells, cattle gets rustled, medicare gets falsely billed, computer chips, industrial espionage. isn't this more about criminal behavior not isolated to pharma? and unfortunately, drug abusers try to get jobs in pharmacies.


the current wholesale dist. drug system is fantastic imho. it keeps drugs more available with next day delivery and cheaper because pharmacies can carry less inventory. sure there is abuse, what systems are 100% perfect??

Definitely criminal behavior going where the money is. When they asked Jesse James, I think it was, why he robbed banks, he said "because that's where the money is."
Trouble with hitting banks is it attracts the cops. For PWP, we have never had any cops on our side, to have the power of investigation to go in there and see just exactly what they are all up to.
Instead, they will yank away the permits from a few street retailers - the pharmacists - whereas the whole structure is collapsing under the weight of the huge industry on top. My Toyota got recalled; the President of the company himself was called in from Japan by a committee of the U.S. Congress, on live TV, to explain and apologize and promise to improve. That, because there were a handful of serious accidents.
But the drugs you depend on to be able to function at all, drugs that exist only because of your illness, those drugs disappear from the pharmacy and show up on the internet, and everybody knows. Everybody plugged in to the international black, grey and white drug markets knows. What is missing here? The customer. Us. We don't have any influence, input or information. Toyota was afraid of losing customers. Big PD Industry is not afraid of losing their customers. They own the disease; the customers are invited, as Merck as done, to "find an alternative" if they don't like the service they are getting. Knowing there is no alternative for many of us. Knowing that we know, and that they know, but nobody else knows or cares. They know that they are not telling the truth.
You can't blame either the free market or government control; it is neither.