It's going to take me a long time to catch up, but here's some cool stuff I've been saving:
Really, the first good pictures and view of ovulation.
Also, you know how I've been talking about HPV and other cancers, besides cervical, for like, a billion years now? My sister sent me an e-mail today saying that my theory re: anal cancer might be right. (I told her that, um, it's not a theory, it's just not common knowledge) She sent me an article from an Australian paper on oral cancer and HPV. Again, it's not news, but whatever. The Canadian government is now thinking about vaccinating men against HPV too.
Speaking of HPV, y'all know that I have ties to Qiagen, which makes the only HPV test on the market in the US. Anyway, Qiagen is appealing a patent loss which would allow another company to make an HPV test.
Should we talk more about patents? Barr won a patent suit against Bayer for Yasmin. Since this happened months ago, you probably already have a generic pack of Yasmin in your hands if you want one. Bayer stock fell after the news.
I'm really not going to talk about FDA preemption here, but I do want to let you all know what's going on in the courts. Here's the quick and dirty version of the recent Supreme Court case: This guy had a balloon angioplasty, and depending upon which case you read, his doctor either did or did not inflate the balloon properly. In any case, the thing blew up in his heart, almost killing him (but didn't). He sued the manufacturer of the balloon catheter, and in February the Supreme Court ruled that federal FDA law didn't allow for state tort suits, which is how you sue someone when crap like this happens. There is a Supreme Court case coming up testing the same law, but with respect to drugs, not devices. The reason I'm telling you this is that it's J&J's defense for suits regarding Ortho-Evra, the patch. Plus, it's one of the things I've been geeking out about lately.
Have you or anyone you know had a hard time paying for an abortion? A clinic in Iowa wants to know.
We don't have a lot of deaths from abortion anymore, thanks, largely, due to legal abortions and antibiotics. Occasionally, we do, and it's just tragic. Of course, there's more here than just a teenager dies of abortion. She had a legal abortion and bled to death waiting for a transfusion, and, it sounds like it was also an incomplete abortion. Plus, she didn't want to have an abortion, but her boyfriend (and maybe his family) wanted her to.
Okay, I'm going to have to sort through a whole lot of stuff, and figure out how to use this upgraded software.
Love,
C
