Fortune, Dec 15, 2014

choi

(1) Every issue starts with “Macro” which invariably contains several pithy, concise essays.
(a) Chris Matthews, Japan Is Aging. It Is Not Alone. The country’s growth is sputtering, its debt load is unrivaled, and its population is the world’s oldest. Japan’s economy has serious problems -- they could soon become our problems too
(“There is a limit to how much the government can do to alleviate the problem. Japan’s quantitative easing program (far larger in scale than equivalent efforts in the US) [can not last forever] * * * All the stimulus in the world can’t make Japan population grow. ‘Japan doesn’t need liquidity [which quantitative easing can bring about],’ [Carl] Weinstein[, chief economist with High Frequency Economics (based in a northern suburb of New York City),] says. ‘It needs people’ “)

* There is no need to read the rest.


(b) Erika Fry, The War on Drugs Finds a Weapon.
fortune.com/2015/12/08/narcan-opioid-heroin-drug-overdose

Note:
(i)
(A) Naloxone. Pubchem, ncbi, nlm, nih, undated
pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/naloxone
("Naloxone is a specific opiate antagonist that has no agonist activity [meaning no effect when delivered to an ordinary person without heroin in the system]")

Compare its 2D structure with that of
(B) heroin hydrochloride.
http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/9844225

* Hydrochloride is the dumbbell on the right, where the green and gray squares represent chloride and hydrogen ions, respectively.  (The red square is an oxygen atom.)
* The structures of the two are almost the same, except the three branches -- at 3, 8 and 10 o'clocks.
(ii) "The FDA has called for more user-friendly forms of the drug—it approved a nasal-spray version in November."

News release: FDA Moves Quickly to Approve Easy-to-Use Nasal Spray to Treat Opioid Overdose; Naloxone in nasal spray form provides important new alternative for family members, first responders. Food and Dug Administration, May 18, 2015
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Ne ... ments/ucm473505.htm
("Drug overdose deaths * * * are now the leading cause of injury death in the United States – surpassing motor vehicle crashes. * * * When someone overdoses on an opioid, it can be difficult to awaken the person, and breathing may become shallow or stop – leading to death if there is no medical intervention. If naloxone is administered quickly, it can counter the overdose effects, usually within two minutes. * * * Until this approval, naloxone was only approved in injectable forms, most commonly delivered by syringe or auto-injector. * * * Narcan [trade name of naloxone] nasal spray does not require assembly and delivers a consistent, measured dose when used as directed. This prescription product * * * is easily administered by anyone, even those without medical training. The drug is sprayed into one nostril while the patient is lying on his or her back, and can be repeated if necessary")

There is no need to read the rest of either (ii) or (iii).
(iii) "And 29 states have issued standing orders that effectively make it available over the counter."

Josh Hicks, Maryland Pharmacists Can Sell Naloxone Without a Prescription. Washington Post, Dec 15, 2015 (which is today)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/l ... e3374e23_story.html
("The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued an order Monday authorizing pharmacists to dispense naloxone to thousands of individuals who have been trained and certified through the state’s Overdose Response Program. * * * Nearly 13,000 individuals have been certified to administer naloxone since the Overdose Response Program began in March 2014. The state has authorized 41 organizations to conduct training and certification.  Certificate-holders must pay for the drug, which may be covered by insurance")


(c) Beth Kowitt, You Are Going to Hear a Lot About Giant Chickens.
fortune.com/2015/12/07/chicken-cage-free-eggs/
("For years the poultry industry has intentionally bred its birds to get bigger faster on less feed. In 1925 the average broiler chicken weighed 2.5 pounds when it went to market at 112 days old. Today the average goes to market after just 48 days at 6.2 pounds—essentially we’ve created giant chickens")