Growing up, I can’t recall any TV advertising for drugs unless, of course, you consider Bayer aspirin a pharmaceutical. Now I can’t escape them, especially during the evening news and 60 Minutes. Seems the FDA loosened the requirements in or around 1996, and Big Pharma has responded, now spending by some measures as much as $19 for advertising for every $1 for basic research. Read more

I have a friend out here in Montauk who’s the healthiest 77 year-old you can imagine.  Oh, he’s way overweight.  And he’s recently had his prostate shaved, a quarter of one lung removed (to get rid of cancer), and three stents put in. But he bounces back and carries on as if none of this happened. Read more