Pharmaceutical companies have been quietly raising prices on brand name prescription drugs sometimes over 100% and even going as high as 1000%.  According to a study conducted by the University of Minnesota, the number of brand name prescription drugs with 100%+ price hikes could more than double that of two years ago.   A large number of the increases are coming on older products that treat rare but often potentially grave, life threatening conditions.

Overall, cumulative prescription drug prices rose 7.4%  in 2007, far outpacing inflation and economic growth for the year.   The seemingly ceaseless ries in the cost of pharmaceuticals is stretching health care plans, insurers, companies and individual patients to the max financially in an already faltering economy where commodity prices from milk to wheat to gasoline have all hit record highs within recent memory. Stephen Schondelmeyer from the University of Minnesota told USA Today:

“There’s no simple explanation.   Some companies seem to figure no one is watching so they can get away with it”

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I am sorry to say that the Derby fillie I  wrote about yesterday died!

Eight Belles finished a strong second in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, but any celebration turned to grief and sorrow when the filly collapsed with two broken ankles and had to be euthanized.

Trainer Larry Jones was clearly emotional and fighting back tears as he spoke at his barn after the race at Churchill Downs. [USA Today]

Sadly many race horses live short lives. According to PETA, ”a New York Daily News reporter remarked, The thoroughbred race horse is a genetic mistake. It runs too fast, its frame is too large, and its legs are far too small. As long as mankind demands that it run at high speeds under stressful conditions, horses will die at racetracks” Yikes!

To learn more about the ethical treatment of animals and check out peta.org.

It seems that practice does make perfect, or at least more practice makes closer to perfect. A new study from the Brookings Institute shows that schools that added more class time to math classes, resulted in their students having better math skills.

The study, which examined eighth-grade math scores in 20 countries, found that five of seven that added instructional minutes from 1995 to 2003 showed improved skills. Of the 13 countries that subtracted time, 10 got worse results. The three exceptions were Latvia, the Netherlands and the USA. [USA Today]

And because I know to most of us, the thought of more time spent in the math classes of our youth is rather unappealing and even somewhat depressing, I thought I’d post a little video reminding everyone how much fun math can be: