The Equity Project

Jim Fedako, who is a frequent contributor to the Mises blog has an interesting post about the emergence of a new type of charter school we need to beware.

The Equity Project is a new public charter school that has adopted a unique pay scale – the school will pay all teachers a base salary of $125,000 per year. On top of that, teachers can earn up to a $25,000 bonus their first year, plus they qualify for a comprehensive benefits package. In return, teachers agree to take on more hours, certain administrative responsibilities, and classes of 30 students.

While TEP is an interesting experiment, the results will be wanting of any real meaning.

First off, since state and federal dollars fund the school, it is free to the families of the students. Application to the school does not reflect the preferences of parents ranked against alternate choices. The only knowledge one can ascertained is that parents applying to this school desire it more than they desire their local, failing public school.

Then there is the question of performance. Without a profit line, how will we know if the school is successful? Government and the media will judge the school’s performance based solely on student scores on government-mandated tests — not on dollar votes cast by parents.

Finally, there is the use of scarce resources. The school hired a phys-ed teacher who was once the personal trainer of Kobe Bryant (not knowing any more information, I assume the teacher was a trainer in high demand). Other teachers have similar pedigrees (again, I cannot speak to the market value of these folks). For the sake of argument, and accepting the premise that the school only hires the best that $125,000 can buy, I will assume that all of the teachers are highly qualified and in-demand. …

I am not a fan of charter schools and believe them to be a poorly formed alternative to the government dominated brain mush centers. This seems to be another example of smoke and mirrors at the expense of taxpayers.

Pharma’s new world order

Pharma’s new world order

An interesting look at the growth of big pharma. Below are a few snippets.

So-called ‘pharmerging’ markets will contribute over half of the growth of the global pharmaceutical market this year, according to market analysts.

In 2006, the US contributed 52 per cent of the pharmaceutical sector’s growth, while the seven emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Korea, Mexico and Turkey contributed just 16 per cent combined. This year, however, the ‘pharmerging’ economies are expected to account for 51 per cent of the industry’s growth, while the US has plummeted dramatically to minus 19 per cent.

This early peek at the new pharmaceutical landscape – reshaped by patent expiries, dwindling pipelines and the global economic crisis – was revealed by market intelligence firm IMS Health, which this week presented its forecast for the pharmaceutical industry over the next five years.

The data place emerging markets front and centre in what it called a ‘new world order’ for the sector. IMS is ‘confident’ that growth in pharmerging markets will remain strong, and anticipates these markets doubling in size over the next five years.

The changing face of the top 20 global pharmaceutical markets through to 2013 © IMS Health

These changes in the sector are the result of a number of factors originating from both the established and emerging markets.

‘As an industry, we’ve effectively always thought of [emerging markets] as second tier markets – once we’ve launched into a mature market then we’ll think about what we’ll do with the emerging markets,’ suggests Campbell.

Between 1997 and 2008, 420 new chemical entities (NCEs) were launched by the pharma sector. Only one third of these reached the pharmerging markets, despite the fact these markets make up around 45 per cent of the world’s population, 500 million of which can afford Western medicine – slightly more than the entire population of the EU.

‘We’ve traditionally taken a business model from the mature markets and essentially tried to drop it into these emerging markets. And I think what we’re seeing is that that doesn’t work,’ says Campbell.

Combined with this perhaps flawed business model is the fact that emerging economies are becoming more established and beefing up investment in the industry to drive growth.

The Chinese government, for example, earlier this year announced a $123 billion (£76.3 billion) healthcare reform plan to ensure medical provision for the country’s population of 1.3 billion. The Indian government also announced plans to cement the country as one of the top biotechnology markets worldwide. Reforms in Turkey have transformed the country’s pharma market, making it more stable and improving quality and transparency.

Alongside this, efforts to align quality, process and intellectual property (IP) procedures in emerging markets with more established markets have made them more attractive regions for investment, says Campbell. ‘A lot of companies are starting to see these markets not just as a source of cheap chemists or cheap biologists, but a real source of innovation going forward as well,’ he adds.

Growth in pharmerging markets this year is predicted in the range of 13-14 per cent, dwarfing efforts in the rest of world with the US predicted to shrink by up to 2 per cent and the top five European countries managing a combined growth of just 2 to 3 per cent.

Earth 2100: New World Order Agenda on Primetime Television

Earth 2100: New World Order Agenda on Primetime Television

Is this the foretelling of the new world order crowd?

Chicken injected with beef waste sold in UK

Chicken injected with beef waste sold in UK

Cafes and restaurants across Britain have been selling chicken secretly injected with beef and pork waste, The Independent can reveal today.

In a hi-tech fraud run by firms in three EU states, food manufacturers are making bulking agents out of porcine and bovine gristle and bones that help inflate chicken breasts, so that they fetch a higher price.

The swindle was only detected by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) using new scientific techniques because the non-chicken material had been so highly processed it passed standard DNA tests.

So much for government protecting the people. You’d be better off getting your food locally from a farmer you know, than trusting the government.