You know that old joke about being your own lawyer means you have a fool as a client? Well, in this case, Alvan Bobrow proved that – and also made it worse for the rest of us.
Monthly Archives: May 2014
GO- is it better than GDP?
They say it’s an improvement. And, it probably is, but it could make general comparisons to the past more and more difficult. What am I talking about? Economic Indicators.
Keep on Truckin’
For years, I drove between Queens (NY) and Cambridge (MA). Every Friday afternoon down to Queens. Every Sunday night (or was that Monday morning?) back to Cambridge. Years later, I drove from Charlottesville to Dulles and from Charlottesville to Roanoke (all in Virginia) several times a week for decade or so.
And one really does make sense
Pfizer. AstraZeneca. Eli Lilly. Novartis. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) . And, now Bayer and Merck.
Bayer will be taking over the consumer care (and non-prescription drug) business of Merck. For $ 14.2 billion, Bayer will be come the second largest provider of OTC (over-the-counter) products;’ second mostly because of the merger of Novartis and GSK that we discussed yesterday. And, there’s another part of this deal- Bayer will co-develop a series of cardiovascular therapies (for which Merck will shell out about $ 2 billion).
Pharma Merger Season?
We talked about Pfizer and AstraZeneca in the first part of this mini-series. A merger that is less about what is good for the pharmaceutical offerings of both firms than it is a means to exploit holes in the tax codes of various nations.
Can the elephant learn to dance?
So, yesterday, I complained about all these pharma mergers. Not because I am against mergers, but because the money being spent on these megadeals would be better focused on R&D (research and development). Because we need more, better, longer-lasting drugs.
Merger or Tax Ploy?
This will be the first in a series of discussions about what is going on with and among big pharma [the pharmaceutical industry]. But, really, this specific post is more about the corporate taxation process in America and the world.
Let’s grow a new one
The entrepreneurial spirit. It is alive and well- even if the potential rewards are attenuated. And, I’m honored to be able to help those on their journey, their quest to prove a new concept, a new methodology, a new operational mode.
Happy Birthday
It was still a teenager. 19 going on 20. That was the first time I visited Israel. I was there around the time of the the 6 Day War. The first place I visited was Jerusalem. And, my first destination in Jerusalem was the Old City of Jerusalem. (You know, that was the “international City” that barred Jews from entry from 1948 until the time it became part of Israel. Where the gravestones from the major Jewish cemetery outside the walls were looted to finish the construction of the Intercontinental Hotel, then owned by King Hussein.) It was my desire to walk up to what was then called the Wailing Wall (it is now known as the Western Wall).
The old grey mare just…
I lost an old friend the other day. He was with me most of the past 45 years.
He traveled with me as I drove to and from the catering halls and research labs I frequented in the late 60’s and early 70’s. He commuted with me between New York and Cambridge, moved with me to Michigan- and then traveled down to Virginia. (I admit it- he never traveled with me on my thrice weekly commute to California. I just thought of that now…)