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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JGoren who wrote (709)	12/3/1998 1:04:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2539

Just how healthy are drug stocks? Fund manager shifts toward midcap health stocks cbs.marketwatch.com

To: JGoren who wrote (709)	12/3/1998 7:42:00 AM
From: LFQ	Respond to of 2539

Drug prescription is only by duly licensed medical practitioners (doctors and others, depending on the license like PA-physician assistant under the supervision of a duly licensed doctor for example). Therefore HMO's, insurers, etc.who are not licensed as such cannot make a clinical decision of what to prescribe, or how to treat for that matter,except to decide whether a certain drug or any treatment form is covered by the plan (who pays what, and how much and how often to be reimbursed,etc.- that type of issue).The ultimate decision then is from the doctor clinician who must put the interest of the patient above all. There is no sure way to clinically predict prior to treatment which patient is going to develop gastric complications or bleeding for that matter (that probably is the reason for the endoscopies because these lesions maybe painless and the only way to prove or disprove its existence unequivocably is a direct visualization.) Note that doctors carry malpractice insurance,HMO's do not practice medicine and therefore have no malpractice insurance, so guess who gets sued.There is a saying among doctors, that it takes only one malpractice claim to devastate your life. In short, irrespective of all the speculations, if celebrex type drugs are labeled or accepted by the FDA as safer; it will be the choice specially on patients who are long term and chronic . Maybe, doctors,will not want lawyers aking them in court, "Doctor,before Mrs.X died from gastric bleeding,were you familiar with Celebrex, and if so why did you prescribe NSAID... LFQ