September 21, 2015

Drug Goes From $13.50 a Tablet to $750, Overnight

Source: New York Times

Specialists in infectious disease are protesting a gigantic overnight increase in the price of a 62-year-old drug that is the standard of care for treating a life-threatening parasitic infection.

The drug, called Daraprim, was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, a start-up run by a former hedge fund manager. Turing immediately raised the price to $750 a tablet from $13.50, bringing the annual cost of treatment for some patients to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?” said Dr. Judith Aberg, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She said the price increase could force hospitals to use “alternative therapies that may not have the same efficacy.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?partner=msft_msn&_r=1

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Wow. I had no idea this is happening. Then again it isn't surprising. It is mostly nich medicines which end up below the radar. Not exactly sure how the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals sleeps at night

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September 17, 2015

NASA releases panoramic photo of "arctic sunset" over Pluto

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The latest images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft have scientists stunned – not only for their breathtaking views of Pluto’s majestic icy mountains, streams of frozen nitrogen and haunting low-lying hazes, but also for their strangely familiar, arctic look.
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“This image really makes you feel you are there, at Pluto, surveying the landscape for yourself,” said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “But this image is also a scientific bonanza, revealing new details about Pluto’s atmosphere, mountains, glaciers and plains.”

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/pluto-wows-in-spectacular-new-backlit-panorama

I am so happy this mission didn't get axed. We know so little about Pluto and Horizon collected so much it will continue to download it to us for the next three years as it sails into the dark. But no retirement for Horizon yet. In a couple years it will maneuver to do a flyby of a Kuiper Belt Object "named" 2014-MU69 on January 1st, 2019. Since it is so far from the sun (>40x as far as Earth) we know almost nothing about the Kuiper Belt. A total bonus mission.

September 4, 2015

I am not sure how I feel (or how I should feel) about this.

In the middle of last school year, Lila Perry came out as transgender. Before that, she had been living as a gay male.

But that’s not who she really was. No longer was she going to pretend, Lila said.

So this year, she told teachers and administrators at Hillsboro High School, where she is a senior, that she would no longer be content to use a unisex faculty bathroom. She wanted to be treated like other female students, including access to bathrooms and locker rooms for girls.

Her decision spread quickly through the small Jefferson County school district and, on Monday morning, students at Hillsboro High School walked out in protest. During the walkout, Lila was locked in the principal’s office. She said she and administrators worried about her safety.

...

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/hillsboro-high-students-walk-out-over-transgender-dispute/article_be488fab-d239-5944-9733-32f569dcdc32.html

I try to think of myself as progressive (at least on social issues). Where is the line between the rights of the individual and the rights of everyone else? Is it bigoted for the parents of the (anatomical) girls in the school to not want a transgender student in the same bathroom? I get the idea of gender identity being different than anatomical gender. I guess I am confused as to how this will all play out in the practical sense.

September 3, 2015

For those complaining Tesla's vehicles are toys for the rich. The Model 3 arrives in 2017 for $35K

The $35,000 price is just what was expected, and Tesla is well known for unveiling its cars well before they are available to buy. Still, it will likely disappoint many that a cheaper Tesla won't arrive until 2017 at the very earliest.

What's taking so long, you ask? Right now, the batteries that would power the Model 3 would cost about as much as the car is slated to. Tesla is building an enormous lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Nevada to make its own batteries for far less money — the "Gigafactory" mentioned in Musk's tweet.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/03/teslas-model-3-to-cost-35k-in-march-but-production-still-2-years-away.html

That $35K is obviously based model but it should have at least 200 mile EPA rated range. The price is before federal tax credit of $7,500 and state incentives so $27.5K (or less if you live in a state which cares about emissions).