Researchers cured mice with a version of Parkinson's disease by treating them with brain cells made from clones of their own skin cells.

I only hope people get the difference between this and actually cloning an entire living person, let alone a human being.

Found this interesting website on The Consumerist. If you are on any meds, you may want to look here. Generics are often just as good and oftentimes cheaper than the advertised meds (those with patents that are still good).

The mission of the Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs project is to provide consumers and their doctors with information to help guide prescription drug choices–based on effectiveness, a drug's track record, safety and price.

The project aims to improve access to needed medicines for tens of millions of Americans—because they lack insurance coverage for prescription drugs, because the prices of many medicines today are so high, and because many consumers and physicians may not be aware of proven and affordable alternatives

Saw an interview in Newsweek where the former CEO of Intel has been diagnosed with Parkinson's and he is already making waves with his views on research and comparing it to the computer industry.

I wonder if he could have as much impact on drug research in general and Parkinson's research in particular as Michael J. Fox. One interesting analogy is that Fox took business people from industry and told them he wanted them out of business in 10 years. While this may not happen, he was one of the first to start talking about schedule and time to market which is what Grove is also talking about. It is going to take a paradigm shift to speed up the process and hopefully Grove will help push for that shift.

One major difference is the way the companies seem to utilize and work with their patent portfolios. The chip industry will continue to develop once they achieve a patent to not only improve or refine the design but to innovate new methods and solutions. It seems pharma always reaches an endpoint with a medication and sit on that patent until it runs out. Once the endpoint is reached it is on to a new drug entirely and we do not see the innovation or improvement from year to year.