5-27-2012 - Aspirin is still the ‘Wonder Drug’

Novens, inc. was established in 1997 by dmurphy.

Just this month I read a piece published in U.S. News & World Report which refers to a study published in the May issue of the New England Journal of Medicine which suggests that aspirin “may reduce the recurrence of deep vein blood clots without increasing complications”. The study was done at the University of Perugia in Italy. Over a two year period only 6.6% of those taking aspirin had a recurrence, whereas 11.2% of those receiving a placebo had one.

I worked for Bayer Pharmaceutical when we had the celebration of the 100th year anniversary of the discovery of Aspirin which, of course, was discovered by Bayer. Since then it has been packaged and repackaged so many times. Other similar drugs have come and gone over the years. Aspirin still is the “wonder drug” for so many ailments. It is a safe, effective and multi-use drug. I take one every day.

 

 

 

Posted In: Scientific Update

5-12-2012 - A Long Journey from AIDS

Novens, inc. was established in 1997 by dmurphy.
Grifols, a global healthcare company based in Barcelona, Spain, recently opened a new plasma testing laboratory in San Marcos, Texas, which will analyze millions of samples of human plasma annually before they are approved for further manufacturing into life-saving medicines for patients. It demonstrates yet again the plasma industry’s ethical and financial commitment to safety and commitment to the many critical-care patients who depend on these products.
We have come a long way from July 1982 when the Centers for Disease Control published in its magazine “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” that 3 patients with hemophilia had died that year with symptoms similar to those found in some homosexual men and Haitians, suggesting that members of all three groups were victims of a common, new and unknown syndrome. We did not know then that the blood system was contaminated. The word “AIDS” entered our vocabulary two years later. I was the executive director of the World Federation of Hemophilia in the latter years of the eighties and early nineties and saw too many wonderful people die because of contaminated blood products. The plasma industry can be proud of its determination to make sure that this would never happen again. And I am proud to belong to the industry.
Posted In: Blood safety

5-12-2012 - Food for Thought

Novens, inc. was established in 1997 by dmurphy.

“It may be that those who do most, dream most.”

–Stephen Butler Leacock,

British-Canadian political economist and humorist

Posted In: Thoughtful Quotes