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The article discusses Roche's breast cancer drug Herceptin has prolonged the lives of people with breast cancer, and Abbvie's immuno suppressive drug Humira has eased the symptoms of rheumatoid anhritis patients.

The article inform US President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to "marshal the forces of science" in his administration.

An editorial is presented on the effects of charitable giving and philanthropy works to taxation in the U.S.

The author argues on the reasons for the high costs of drugs which he associated to the complexity of biology, government regulations, shareholder expectations for high profit margins.

The author discusses the testimonials and profiles of people found at the website of the American Cancer Society Inc. hailing drug retail chain Walgreens Co. fort its decision not to stop selling tobacco products as opposed from its rival CVS/Pharmacy Inc.

DOCTORS are among the most richly rewarded professionals in the country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that of the 15 highest-paid professions in the United States, all but two are in medicine or dentistry. Why, then, are we proposing to make medical school free? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I was in the car with Ruth, headed home from one of her last radiation treatments at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Traffic was maddening. It was dusk. It was cold and lightly raining. It had been eight months since Dr. Hiram Cody felt the lump in her breast. Surgery had gone smoothly enough. Chemotherapy had carried side effects, but we had gotten through. Now there were just a few more days of radiation to go. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When my wife, Ruth, learned she had breast cancer, friends told us not to worry. After all, they said, a lot of progress has been made. As a cancer researcher and a doctor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where she was being treated, I knew this was true. Progress has indeed been made. Throughout my career, death rates from breast cancer in the United States have steadily declined by 1 percent to 2 percent a year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a medical student 20 years ago, I learned all about anatomy, physiology and pharmacology. My professors also taught me, implicitly, how to put on the white doctor coat as a shield against human vulnerability. With the coat on, you could get right up close to frailty, even touch it, and it wouldn't be able to reach out and pull you in. Residency training, with its harsh hours and unrelenting pace, added several more layers of protective shellac. But in all those years I didn't have one class on how to be a patient, never mind how to be the spouse of one. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

EVERY year, like half a million other doctors, I sign on to the government's largest no-bid, no-compete contract. We agree to treat Medicare patients for a set rate, and Medicare agrees to take all of us on board, whether or not our services are needed in the city or town where we practice. As a result, doctors -- in particular, specialists -- flock to some parts of the country and shun others. The trouble with this is that when there are too many doctors in one area, too much money gets spent on health care. But the system could take advantage of this fact to save money. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

THE longstanding push-pull between Medicare and Congress has erupted again. Last week, Congress, overriding a presidential veto, canceled Medicare's scheduled 10.6 percent cut in payment rates for doctors, and instead raised the rates 1.1 percent. But this action fails to address the problem with the Medicare payment system, which is not the amounts doctors are paid but the way their payments are calculated. Medicare pays doctors for specific services. If a patient has a checkup that includes an X-ray, a urine analysis and a physical, Medicare pays the doctor three separate fees. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]