Health Care: Greater Use Of “Biosimilars” Could Save System $7 Billion

October 16, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a Health Care Finance News online article:

But greater use of biosimilars could create significantly more savings. If biosimilars obtained a 75 percent market share, less than the share of these medicines in many European Union nations, the resulting annual savings for the U.S. healthcare system could be nearly $7 billion, based on Winegarden’s analysis.

Not all drugs are created the same. Take generics and biologics: The former is a chemical-based medicine whose manufacture is easily replicated, while the latter is created using biological processes.

But there’s another key difference between those two classes of drugs, and it pertains to the financial state of the healthcare industry and to U.S. taxpayer dollars. Stated plainly, biosimilars have the opportunity to bring significant savings to state Medicaid programs and consumers with commercial insurance. That gives them a leg up over their chemical-based counterparts.

Arts & Literature, Reviews

Remembering Legendary New Yorker Cartoonist Dana Fradon (1922-2019)

October 16, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a New Yorker online posting:

Fradon’s elaborate drawings were generous masterpieces of compressed fun. One carefully detailed illustration, published in 1987, depicts a chauffeured convertible making its way up a manicured, tree-lined drive, toward an extravagant hilltop mansion. The self-satisfied owner, seated in the rear seat, says to his companion, “It’s my one indulgence.”

Dana Fradon, a New Yorker cartoonist who died on October 3rd, at the age of ninety-seven, was the last of the magazine’s legendary artists who were brought to its pages by Harold Ross. Fradon, starting in 1948, contributed almost fourteen hundred finely honed drawings of mirth and satire. The surprising stories and frozen moments in his work entertained and delighted readers for decades.

Architecture, Home Design

Video Profiles: Architect Roger Zogolovitch Tours His “HouseBoat” Home In Southern England (2019)

Video October 16, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a The Modern House online article:

Away from the city, Roger escapes to his home near Poole, Dorset for what he calls an ‘analogue retreat’. To hear Roger talk about the inspirations behind the building, which resembles an up-turned boat and which is both eccentric and serene, fun and functional…

For the final instalment in this batch of our Masters of Design series, we’re paying a visit to architect Roger Zogolovitch’s boat-inspired house near Poole, Dorset – the recipient of two RIBA awards and a paragon in split-level living. Watch the film here.

Roger is the founder and creative director of Solidspace, an independent developer focused on unearthing the potential of backland gap sites rarely noticed by mainstream housebuilders. By skillfully utilising overlooked sites in the urban environment – adjacent to railroads or between and above office buildings, for instance – Roger proposes intelligent design solutions to the challenges of providing enough homes for a growing population.

Arts & Literature, Reviews

Books Worth Reading: “A Booklover’s Guide To New York” By Cleo Le-Tan (2019)

October 16, 2019 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

From a New Criterion online article:

A Booklover’s Guide to New York, by Cleo Le-Tan, with drawings by Pierre Le-Tan (Rizzoli): As Prufrock measured out his life in coffee spoons, some New Yorkers measure theirs in departed bookstores. I weep most for Crawford Doyle, which in 2017 closed after twenty-one years in stately residence on Madison Avenue at Eighty-first Street. But there have been compensations among the heartaches. In 2014, Albertine opened at the French Embassy, on Fifth Avenue and Seventy-ninth Street. The gorgeous store cheekily asserts on billboards that “The best bookstore in France is in New York City.” And Rizzoli, which lost its lease in its double-front townhouse on Fifty-seventh Street in 2014, later reopened on Broadway and Twenty-sixth Street, in a space nearly as grand as the original. Cleo Le-Tan’s A Booklover’s Guide to New York is expressly made for those who view the city’s bookstores as integral to its being. Documenting the shops, sellers, libraries, and bibliophiles of the city, the illustrated book is a worthy addition to any personal collection.