Yeah, and the CIA had nothing to do with Trujillo's assassination. Not even the Dominicans are buying it.
"Boston drug-pricing watchdog group has pharma companies’ attention" by Jonathan Saltzman Globe Staff, June 19, 2019
Had to flip below the fold for the $ticker $hock.
His adversaries call him a shill for health insurers, a bloodless bean counter who would rather let some sick people die than see them get expensive life-saving medicines, but Steven Pearson, founder of an obscure nonprofit watchdog group in Boston, is wielding growing influence on what some of the world’s biggest drug makers charge for their products.
Related: "nonprofits provide new ways for corporations and individuals to influence"
As if they didn't have enough already.
Just last month, the head of Swiss drug giant Novartis said he could justify a price tag of up to $5 million for a soon-to-be approved gene therapy for a deadly rare disease, but CEO Vas Narasimhan said the company wouldn’t do that — and cited talks with the watchdog group partly for its decision.
Two days later the drug, Zolgensma, won approval. Novartis priced it at a jaw-dropping $2.1 million, still the most ever for a medicine. Pearson’s group didn’t object, agreeing that the one-time, life-saving treatment for spinal muscular atrophy — the leading genetic killer of infants — might be worth that much.
Looks like a good cop, bad cop negotiating tactic a la Trump, doe$n't it? Ask for the moon, then get what you wanted anyway. $uckers!
It marked just the latest effort by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review — a name only a policy wonk could love — to get drug firms to charge only what it says a medicine is worth. ICER researchers spend about eight months studying how well a medicine works and whether it might reduce other health care costs, then publicize their findings in the hopes of
ICER, Page C2
It i$ with no $mall amount of irony that I note that the article is to be be continued in the Bu$ine$$ $ection, and this is all about finfding treatments that can be utilized by the ruling cla$$ should such maladies confront them. It's not about the rest of us; otherwise, the $y$tem and our health wouldn't be in the shape it is.
Good thing money ain't a drug:
Encore opening patrons urged not to drive to avoid traffic in Everett
It is opening at 10 a.m. on a Sunday, a calculated decision (the new church), and they are comparing the potential traffic to the Y2K scare -- with hardly a mention of the recent derailments or when the decrepit pos will be back to its usual lateness in the Globe today. Hmmmm.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Better go fill that pre$cription:
"An Ohio hospital system has reached nearly $4.5 million in settlements so far over the deaths of patients who allegedly received excessive painkiller doses ordered by a doctor now charged with murder. ‘‘It is our hope that these settlements will bring some measure of closure and comfort to the families,’’ the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System said in a statement. The hospital system has also publicly apologized for the patient deaths. The settlements range from $200,000 to $700,000. In most cases, patients’ families get two-thirds or less of the payouts from the hospital’s insurers. The rest goes to their attorneys. The families and the lawyers aren’t commenting on the settlements, citing related confidentiality agreements....."
Related:
"An Ohio doctor was charged Wednesday with 25 counts of murder, with authorities accusing him of deliberately causing patients’ deaths by prescribing fatal doses of the powerful opioid fentanyl. A grand jury indicted Dr. William Husel, 43, who turned himself in to police Wednesday in Columbus, the state capital. The charges came after a six-month criminal investigation found that Husel purposely caused the deaths of dozens of critical-care patients over four years by ordering excessive doses of painkillers. A lawyer for Husel has said he did not intend to kill any patients....."
He was just trying to make $ome money by hu$tling some drugs.
It's enough to make a drug-pusher cry:
"David Sackler, the grandson of the founder of Purdue Pharma, asserted that the company “didn’t cause the crisis” of opioid addiction and defended his family against “vitriolic hyperbole” and “endless castigation” in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine published online Wednesday. Sackler, who runs a family investment office and served on Purdue’s board of directors from 2012 to August 2018, is the first member of the family to publicly address accusations that Purdue, maker of OxyContin, bears responsibility for the opioid crisis because it aggressively and deceptively marketed a drug it knew was addictive. Sackler says in the article that the company acted based on the prevailing scientific views of the time, and then took steps to remedy the problem when the science changed. He also notes that Purdue was “not the only company that marketed opioids.” The article’s author, Vanity Fair contributing editor Bethany McLean, describes their conversation as emotional, with Sackler sometimes “almost on the brink of tears” and other times struggling to control his anger....."
Does HE have a drug problem?
"An Alabama man wanted on drug and weapons charges has posted a video denying he fed methamphetamine to a so-called ‘‘attack squirrel’’ that he considers a pet. Mickey Paulk posted the video on his Facebook page Tuesday night as authorities continued searching for him. It shows him stroking a rodent that he indicates was the same one seized during a search and then released by authorities. He said the squirrel, which he kept as a pet, was safe and not a threat to anyone. ‘‘The public isn’t in danger in any kind of way from the methed-out squirrel in the neighborhood,’’ Paulk said with a laugh. Police said they were warned about a meth- fueled, trained attack squirrel before conducting a drug search at a rural home near Athens, Ala., on Monday. One man was arrested at the home, and police said they released the caged squirrel. In the video, Paulk denied living at the home but said he went there after the raid and saw the pet squirrel in a treetop. The animal scampered down and hopped on his shoulder, he said....."
The $o-called respectable American pre$$ is looking more and more like a cartooni$h tabloid for sale at the supermarket.
Police search for brawlers at youth baseball game
Alcohol NOT a factor.
Boston woman says NC Uber driver took her on an unwanted ride
Alcohol NOT a factor.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Galvin warns marijuana companies, investors over illegal offerings" by Dan Adams Globe Staff, June 19, 2019
Buyer — and seller — beware.
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin is warning marijuana companies and their investors to follow Massachusetts securities rules or risk getting busted in a new “sweep” of the emerging industry by regulators in his office on the hunt for fraudsters.
Going through the chaff with a fine-tooth comb after letting the mortgage guys, the college loan guys, etc, etc, get away with it for years before settling for some kickbacks with tap-on-the-wrist actions; however, they never wanted the pot guys because you stink (want the tax loot they weren't getting, though) and they are going to make $ure they blow $moke up your butts.
Galvin’s announcement Wednesday came as his office unveiled charges against a Holyoke man and his former company, Positronic Farms, which allegedly sold unregistered securities worth $1.3 million to dozens of investors in 2017 and 2018 before folding.
In an interview, Galvin said his office’s review of marijuana companies is not related to the drug itself. Instead, it was prompted by the high level of activity and excitement around the fast-expanding legal cannabis business — and an uptick in reports that some players in the space are exploiting and misleading investors who are eager to get in on the rush.
“No pun intended, but there’s a buzz around marijuana right now with investors,” Galvin said. “We’re concerned that people are attracted to these businesses, but because they’re non-banked entities, it’s very hard to determine whether they’re real or worthy of investment.”
By law, companies offering ownership shares must register with the securities division of Galvin’s office. Similarly, investors must be accredited in order to purchase securities.
They spent all that time rewriting the referendum after getting their own pay raises out of the way, and yet the law was vague -- almost as if the legi$looters wrote it up while stoned -- except for the inve$tment over$ight.
Under the “sweep,” investigators from his office will be checking the registration status and ledgers of companies in the marijuana space — whether licensed growers and sellers or so-called “ancillary” businesses supporting them. Those selling shares without permission or making overblown promises to investors risk being charged, Galvin said.
“I would strongly urge anybody — before you give money to somebody, make sure they’re real and eligible to sell the interest they claim to have,” he added.
OMG!
Yeah, unless you are giving it to them!
I mean, is the tax revenue going where you want it?
Positronic Farms, which was run by David Caputo and had planned to open a cannabis cultivation facility in a 200,000-square-foot former paper mill in Holyoke, failed to register with the state’s securities division, according to a complaint brought by Galvin’s office.
Nonetheless, the firm allegedly went on to sell the securities through private placement offerings to about 40 investors in Massachusetts and eight other states. Investigators said the company failed to determine whether those investors were accredited, and that many were not. They also alleged that Caputo freely intermingled investor money with other funds, and spent down their investments despite a pledge that he wouldn’t use them until at least $250,000 had been raised.
Caputo did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but told MassLive he denied any wrongdoing and had relied on an attorney to arrange the private placements.
Caputo’s failed effort to open the marijuana growing facility was marked by scandal throughout.
One early investor in Positronic Farms sued the company, saying Caputo and its other founders improperly stripped him of his shares after he objected to Caputo growing and selling marijuana at home.
Later, after police allegedly discovered more than 75 marijuana plants under cultivation in the attic of a home Caputo owned, he was forced to resign from another company — Holyoke Gardens — which would have grown marijuana as a tenant in the mill leased by Positronic Farms. Holyoke Gardens subsequently received local approval and a provisional license from the Cannabis Control Commission.
The charges against Caputo and Positronic Farms follow another enforcement action by Galvin’s office in the marijuana space: In April, investigators charged a Beverly-based executive who “lost control of more than $8 million in assets” he had raised in a quest to open medical marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts.
Galvin said he strongly supported proposed changes to federal law that would make it easier for banks and other financial institutions to work with licensed marijuana businesses, saying such reforms would make it easier for his investigators and other regulators to trace the movement of money in the rapidly evolving sector.
“Most intelligent people would support that — it’s the logical thing to do,” Galvin said. “These are real businesses, and by denying them [banking]... you’re not helping.”
That $tate $ecret-keeper is so intelligent!
We know because he $ay$ he i$!
--more--"
No $ooner had he expelled the $moke from his lungs:
"With Brookline’s OK, major marijuana acquisition to be completed" by Dan Adams Globe Staff, June 19, 2019
The purchase of Massachusetts-based marijuana company New England Treatment Access by Surterra Wellness of Georgia is set to close, after officials in Brookline Tuesday approved the transfer of the company’s local license.
The unanimous vote by Brookline’s Select Board was the last major hurdle holding up the private transaction, which is reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We are very pleased,” NETA co-founder Kevin Fisher said in a statement. “We look forward to combining our collective talents to strengthen further our reputations as best-in-class in the cannabis industry.”
Under the deal, a new Surterra-backed vehicle that includes some of NETA’s original investors will take over the firm’s hybrid medical-recreational stores in Northampton and Brookline and its cultivation and processing facility in Franklin. Meanwhile, product recipes and brands created by NETA could see use at Surterra’s other marijuana facilities in Florida, Nevada, and Texas.
Officials at the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission had already approved Surterra’s purchase of NETA at a meeting last week, following a lengthy review that included background checks of Surterra executives and a scrub of the company’s regulatory record in other states, but for the acquisition to close, the companies needed the assent of Brookline, which had issued NETA a special permit for its marijuana store on Washington Street. A spokesman said that following Tuesday’s vote, only internal paperwork remains for the deal to be officially effected.
In March, NETA’s Brookline shop became the first recreational retailer to open near Boston, and has since been flooded with lines of customers. The firm’s Northampton store, meanwhile, was one of the first two marijuana retailers to open in the state last November.
When the proposed purchase was announced in January, Fisher — who is joining Surterra’s board — said NETA wasn’t struggling financially, but was instead scaling up to compete nationally in anticipation of possible reforms to federal marijuana laws. He also said there likely wouldn’t be layoffs among NETA’s 700 employees.
Surterra, which is known for selling “Coral Reefer”-branded edibles and other products under a licensing deal with Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville” operation, is run by former chewing gum executive William Wrigley Jr. II, and operates 20 medical dispensaries in Florida. The company previously said it raised $200 million in funding in 2018, and is in the midst of an aggressive expansion that includes the NETA acquisition and a successful lobbying effort in Georgia to legalize limited medical marijuana sales there.
--more--"
I'm sorry, what?
$tuff put me to $leep.
Time to join forces:
ICER, Continued from Page A1
getting drug makers to set a fair price.
In the past two years or so, the nonprofit persuaded a partnership of two drug firms to charge far less for an injectable eczema treatment than analysts had expected; pressured the same partnership and a third firm to cut the costs of two competing cholesterol-lowering drugs; and saw the Department of Veterans Affairs adopt the institute’s pricing guide for medicines prescribed to military veterans.
Pearson, a doctor with a master’s degree in health policy and management from Harvard University, acknowledges that pharmaceutical firms continue to wield enormous power and that ICER can only offer opinions — it has no regulatory authority. Still, the group is gaining clout as more Americans blanch at dizzying drug prices.
“We’re the mouse that roared,” Pearson, 59, said in his spartan ninth-floor office in Liberty Square. ICER, he said, stands up to “huge companies, huge resources, huge everything,” in an attempt to rein in spiraling health costs.
The group is also making enemies. Drug makers, pharmaceutical lobbyists, and some self-described patient advocacy groups say the institute threatens to stifle innovation and could make some medicines unavailable, if insurers agree they are overpriced and limit who can get them.
Cambridge-based Sarepta Pharmaceuticals refuses to help the institute’s researchers evaluate its medicines, and Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals says it did help but won’t again. Drug firms typically assist ICER by providing research material, such as unpublished data on the benefits of a drug.
Sarepta and Vertex executives say the institute’s pricing model is biased against drugs for deadly rare diseases, the focus of their businesses. Those medicines can cost six figures or more because they are expensive to make and treat relatively few patients, the companies say.....
What, what?
There I go again!
--more--"
He said he isn’t out to get them, he just wants fair drug prices, and that they are “not evil and that it is a win-win” for all.
