organization:memorial

The End of Black Harlem
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-black-harlem.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/05/29/sunday-review/29Adams1-Web/29Adams1-Web-superJumbo-v3.jpg

It was painful to realize how even a kid could see in every new building, every historic renovation, every boutique clothing shop — indeed in every tree and every flower in every park improvement — not a life-enhancing benefit, but a harbinger of his own displacement.

In fact, it’s already happening. Rents are rising; historic buildings are coming down. The Renaissance, where Duke Ellington performed, and the Childs Memorial Temple Church of God in Christ, where Malcolm X’s funeral was held, have all been demolished. Night life fixtures like Smalls’ Paradise and Lenox Lounge are gone.

#gentrification #Harlem #racisme

Oncologist slams expensive chemo drugs at annual meeting | State Column
▻http://www.statecolumn.com/2015/06/oncologist-slams-expensive-chemo-drugs-at-annual-meeting

A top-level oncologist has just delivered a scathing critique of the exorbitant prices for many chemotherapy drugs at the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology. According to Youth Health Magazine, Dr. Leanord Saltz, chief of gastrointestinal oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York went on a tirade against the ever-increasing cost of these critical medications during his speech at the meeting.

Earlier during the day, representatives from pharmaceutical company Bristol-Meyers presented research that showed how a combination of two drugs they produced, Yervoy and Opdiva, significantly increased the length of lives in patients with melanoma. Saltz used the research as a starting point for his speech, noting that together they can cost a patient up to $295,000 each year.

Saltz noted that the median monthly price for cancer drugs in the US has more than doubled in the past decade. The median price jumped from $4,716 each month from 2000 to 2004 to $ 9,900 each month between 2010 and 2014.

GM ’hybrid’ fish pose threat to natural populations, scientists warn | Environment | guardian.co.uk
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/29/gm-hybrid-fish-threat-natural-populations

The offspring of genetically modified salmon and wild brown trout are even faster growing and more competitive than either of their parents, a new study has revealed, increasing fears that GM animals escaping into the wild could harm natural populations.

The aggressive hybrids suppressed the growth of GM salmon by 82% and wild salmon by 54% when all competed for food in a simulated stream.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of environmental impacts of hybridisation between a GM animal and a closely related species,” wrote the scientists from Memorial University of Newfoundland. “These findings suggest that complex competitive interactions associated with transgenesis and hybridisation could have substantial ecological consequences for wild Atlantic salmon should they ever come into contact [with GM salmon] in nature.”

The leader of the study, Krista Oke, said: “These results emphasise the importance of stringent regulations to ensure GM animals do not escape into nature.”

#ogm #hybridation #alimentation

Cancer Physicians Attack High Drug Costs
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/business/cancer-physicians-attack-high-drug-costs.html

With the cost of some lifesaving cancer drugs exceeding $100,000 a year, more than 100 influential cancer specialists from around the world have taken the unusual step of banding together in hopes of persuading some leading pharmaceutical companies to bring prices down.

Some of the doctors who signed on to the commentary said they were inspired by physicians at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who last fall refused to use a new colon cancer drug, Zaltrap, because it was twice as expensive as another drug without being better.

Many of the roughly 120 doctors who were co-authors of the commentary — about 30 of whom are from the United States, the — work closely with pharmaceutical companies on research and clinical trials. They say they favor a healthy pharmaceutical industry, but think prices are much higher than they need to be to ensure that.

“If you are making $3 billion a year on Gleevec, could you get by with $2 billion?” Dr. Druker, who is now director of the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University, said in an interview. “When do you cross the line from essential profits to profiteering?”

#pharma #brevets #soins