The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
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Issues in the News
1. HEALTH
New research finds that moderate alcohol consumption helps lower the risk of heart attack, even among men with high blood pressure.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on public perceptions of the health effects of alcohol:
“The connection between moderate alcohol consumption and reduced heart disease risk is supported by a wide body of medical research, and has been noted in publications ranging from the New England Journal of Medicine to Consumer Reports. According to [a 1995] poll, which involved telephone interviews with 1,000 registered voters, only 41.7% of adults know about this medical evidence. Research indicates that the benefits of moderate consumption can be obtained from all alcoholic beverages—wine, beer and spirits. However, the poll found that only 9.7% of the public knows this.”
2. BUSINESS
NPR’s Marketplace predicts a “war” on brand name pharmaceuticals led by makers of generic drugs.
CEI Experts Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Dr. Henry I. Miller on the economics of the prescription drug industry:
“Dr. [Marcia] Angell’s analysis of companies’ profitability downplays their huge investments in research & development. The U.S. research-based pharmaceutical industry (that is, excluding companies that make generic drugs) currently spends upwards of $33 billion annually on R&D. Moreover, it invests in research and development a far greater percentage of sales (17.7 per cent) than any other industrial sector, including electronics (6.0 per cent), telecommunications (5.1 per cent), and aerospace (3.7 per cent).”
3. ENVIRONMENT
The Bush administration proposes listing the polar bear as a “threatened” species under the Endangered Species Act.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Steven Milloy on how the polar bear has gotten tangled up in the politics of global warming:
“Rather than issuing the proposal in a tentative and low-key manner, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne issued a media release and reigned over a press teleconference where he and the director of Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) touted the proposal. But they quickly lost control of the affair – not to mention their message. The major issue at the press conference became not whether the polar bear was truly endangered, but whether the rulemaking was a signal that the Bush administration was beginning to melt on global warming.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].