No wonder drugs are so expensive....

This from the Wall Street Journal today 2/27/2006 (See "Pfizer Shuffles Executive Roles"):

" ...Henry McKinnell, Pfizer's chairman and chief executive, earned $15.9 million in 2005, and is set to receive a pension valued at $83 million when he retires, which is scheduled for early 2008."

Geez.... And to think this year's salary is estimated to be 22% less than last year's.... How much is a single Lipitor pill?

--Wes

A Shameless Marketing Campaign or Real Good for Girls?

I just got done watching the Super Bowl and was struck by Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" launched at young girls. Lots of multiethnic photos of cute, quite young girls with large doe eyes and a fund raising campaign (for the Girl Scouts) because over "92% of girls" don't like something about their appearance. According to whom? Where's the data? And what, Dove's gonna come to their rescue? Oh, PLEASE! And how much did this COST? ($2.4 million or so for 30 seconds?). I dare say that ALL of us, EVERY ONE, doesn't like something about our appearance, but we learn to live with it, we learn to accept ourselves for who we are rather than what we look like. And what about BOYS? (Note that not a SINGLE boy was shown in the ad.... why, because boys don't usually buy facial creams and beauty products! God knows that acne tormented me when I was young, but it certainly helped me understand that my body was changing and I knew with perserverance, its scourge would pass. Why? Because I knew and trusted my parents and friends who helped me through this time in my life. No Dove commercial made that happen! My friends were still friends, even if I had a zit on my forehead. And here's the deal... I HAVE a daughter. (She hasn't seen this ad, at least yet, she was playing with friends at the time). But the REAL issues is we're all human and the human body, ALL of 'em, are miraculous, incredible machines that are our very being and certainly need to be respected, and cherished, and yes, held in high esteem, but not because DOVE is gonna make it so, I'm perfectly capable of doing this. Please Dove, leave my daughter alone!

And if you're for the campaign (and I know many might disagree with me), then at least donate to the Boy Scouts of America, too.

--Wes

Go Red for Women

Seems appropriate that February has been designated "heart month" by the American Heart Association. The "Go Red for Women" campaign is an important campaign to increase awareness of heart disease in women. If you want an eye-opening testimonial, just review the compelling story of Dr. Helen on our website, MedTees.com. Just yesterday, the Chicago Tribune had a piece on the WISE study which has illustrated the cause of some of the differences in presentation clinically of heart disease in women as opposed to men. It is remarkable that breast cancer, causing about 42,000 deaths annually in the U.S., has had a lobby/PR effort that has been so effective at getting their message out, but the heart disease lobby has had trouble reaching the masses regarding the sad fact that nearly 356,000 deaths in women occur per year in the U.S. from cardiovascular causes, nearly eight times that of breast cancer.

So tomorrow, wear red. Shirt, pants, socks, ties, and yes, t-shirts. Red, red, red. Time to get folks thinking about the impact of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and genetics to contribute to this near-epidemic of heart disease in women. It's a lot more likely to kill you than bird flu, which seems to be having way too much press lately....

--Wes