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And they said Smoking Kills. Chantix
So, I was up last night watching my beloved Yankees kick some B'more ass in baseball and as usual, I'm forced to sit through a gambit of anit smoking ads, because for some reason the YES channel or just the Steinbrenners in general are in cahoots with the Anti Smoking companies out there. Any way, not to be deterred, I usually change the channel when i see one coming on, sometimes my hands don't move as fast to the remote, because...well, yeah, I have a cigarette in my hand.
Any WAYS one commercial snuck through yesterday, and it was the Chantix ad. Chantix is one of many anti smoking drugs promising you freedom from the nicotine addiction for well, a better and safer life assuming you don't KILL YOURSELF first. It's the all or nothing drug that proposes that age old question all addicts have to deal with. Your life or your addiction?
After rolling on the ground laughing (and managing to keep my cigarette lit and in hand) I decided to look Chantix up and will be looking up more drugs in the future for my new weekly segment called. DRUGS THAT KILL BUT MY DOCTOR SAID IT WAS OK.
Check out the Warning label on Chantix and be sure to read the words SUICIDAL and DEPRESSION
Serious neuropsychiatric events, including, but not limited to depression, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt and completed suicide have been reported in patients taking CHANTIX. Some reported cases may have been complicated by the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal in patients who stopped smoking. Depressed mood may be a symptom of nicotine withdrawal. Depression, rarely including suicidal ideation, has been reported in smokers undergoing a smoking cessation attempt without medication. However, some of these symptoms have occurred in patients taking CHANTIX who continued to smoke.
All patients being treated with CHANTIX should be observed for neuropsychiatric symptoms including changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, and suicide-related events, including ideation, behavior, and attempted suicide. These symptoms, as well as worsening of pre-existing psychiatric illness and completed suicide have been reported in some patients attempting to quit smoking while taking CHANTIX in the post-marketing experience. When symptoms were reported, most were during CHANTIX treatment, but some were following discontinuation of CHANTIX therapy.
These events have occurred in patients with and without pre-existing psychiatric disease. Patients with serious psychiatric illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder did not participate in the pre-marketing studies of CHANTIX and the safety and efficacy of CHANTIX in such patients has not been established.
Advise patients and caregivers that the patient should stop taking CHANTIX and contact a healthcare provider immediately if agitation, hostility, depressed mood, or changes in behavior or thinking that are not typical for the patient are observed, or if the patient develops suicidal ideation or suicidal behavior. In many post-marketing cases, resolution of symptoms after discontinuation of CHANTIX was reported, although in some cases the symptoms persisted; therefore, ongoing monitoring and supportive care should be provided until symptoms resolve.
The risks of CHANTIX should be weighed against the benefits of its use. CHANTIX has been demonstrated to increase the likelihood of abstinence from smoking for as long as one year compared to treatment with placebo. The health benefits of quitting smoking are immediate and substantial.
(See WARNINGS/Neuropsychiatric Symptoms and Suicidality, PRECAUTIONS/Information for Patients, and ADVERSE REACTIONS/Post-Marketing Experience)
GE Takes the First Step Toward Recovery
The first step in addressing a problem is to admit that you have one. By cutting its quarterly dividend, General Electric has put its foot forward. The road to recovery, however, remains long and tortuous.
Investors had ample warning: GE said the payout for the second half of 2009 was under review back on Feb. 6. Even before then, the stock's double-digit yield was a flashing signal that a cut was likely. Friday's announcement prompted another sharp fall in GE's share price. However, it also answers a big question that was hanging over the stock, which could tempt in some buyers.
Beginning in the second half of the year, the quarterly payment will drop to 10 cents from 31 cents. That will conserve $13.3 billion by the end of 2010, which is almost a year's worth of operating cash flow from GE's industrial business. Meanwhile, the new dividend yield of 4.7% remains attractive, and looks more sustainable.
Cutting the dividend isn't a silver bullet, however. GE's triple-A credit rating remains under review and still looks likely to be cut. It has demonstrated prudence, which should please the likes of Moody's, not to mention politicians, who might wonder why a company benefiting from government debt guarantees was still being so generous to shareholders.
The saving in 2009 will be just $4.2 billion. That is handy, but not enough to fully assuage fears of bigger write-downs in the finance business or a weaker performance in the industrial business.
Moving to a more defensive posture was long overdue and is welcome. But the unavoidable consequence is to stoke fears that the outlook for GE's businesses continues to deteriorate.
