| Heart disease nearly killed me
Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of women and men in this country. It strikes people of all ages. It doesn't discriminate. February is American Heart Month. Today, I share my story to raise awareness of this disease and in hopes that someone will read this and make better decisions than I did - decisions which nearly cost me my life. It was late July 2006, just two months shy of my 39th birthday. I had taken off from work for a couple of days to do some extra house cleaning in anticipation of a visit from my mom and her fiance. Almost two years had passed since my dad had been ripped from our lives by prostate cancer. Now mom had found companionship in a cancer widower, and they were going to be married in the fall. I hadn't felt good for a while, but believed it was because I worked too much and had too much stress in my life.
Megan Schanie's tough treatment
Megan Schanie curled in a fetal position on her hospital bed, feeling faint and queasy even as anti-nausea medication dripped into her body. Her husband, Cameron, who would sit beside her for six hours of chemotherapy for her breast cancer, switched off the light to help her sleep as the soft rhythm of an intravenous pump filled the room. He held a cup of Coke to her lips, letting her take sips. .
Schering-Plough's turnaround is moving on apace
Schering-Plough is celebrating what its chief executive Fred Hassan describes as the continuance of "an extraordinary transformation" as the company posted a strong set of financials that were again driven by its cholesterol franchise.
Net income for the fourth quarter rose 75% to $182 million, or $0.12 per share, and the company noted that those figures include an unfavourable impact of $0.04 per share related to the streamlining its manufacturing operations and a charge of $0.01 per share related to the licensing of the over-the-counter heartburn treatment Zegerid (omeprazole/sodium bicarbonate).
Adjusted net sales were up 18.1% to $3.20 billion, which includes the contribution of Merck & Co/S-P joint venture products Zetia (ezetimibe) and Vytorin (ezetimibe and simvastatin).
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