Corrections or additions?
This column was prepared for the April 12, 2006 issue of U.S. 1
Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Between The Lines
While bad news is the bread and butter (circulation and subscription
base) of daily newspapers, we weeklies are freed from ambulance
chasing by the very nature of our longer publishing clock. We have
more time to look at stories, and we find that we tend to get excited
about those that are positive. The growth of an entrepreneur’s dream
into a solid business is a story we enjoy telling, along with in-depth
behind-the-scenes portraits of people who are making a difference in
our communities – and beyond.
This week, however, we deviate from our pattern to present a
state-of-our-state report that is a bit dark. Michele Alperin, a
frequent U.S. 1 contributor went to hear James Hughes address
Princeton’s 55 Plus group last week. Hughes, dean of the Edward J.
Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, and
arguably the most prolific economic trend guru in the state, sees
trouble. Trouble now, with a Class A office vacancy rate at 21 percent
and the disappearance of thousands of high-paying jobs in technology,
telecommunications, and the pharmaceutical industry, and more trouble
in the future. He is issuing a wake-up call, and Alperin provides all
of the details, starting on page 37.
In a companion story, senior editor Barbara Fox speaks with Rita
Gunther McGrath, a Columbia University economist and author, whose
most recent book is “Marketbusters.” McGrath keeps a close eye on the
Princeton-area economy and is seeing signs of consolidation in a
number of key industries.
All is not negative, though. Fox and McGrath together go through the
findings in U.S. 1’s annual directory – due to come out next
Wednesday, April 19 – and, upon analyzing its exhaustive data,
categorized by industry, McGrath says that she is heartened to see
that so many small and mid-sized businesses are growing so well.
Meanwhile, as U.S. 1 reported last week, Novo Nordisk, the world’s
leading producer of insulin and one of the healthy large
pharmaceuticals in the area, is doing well, having just opened a new
facility on Route 1. This week the company reports that Levemir, its
new long-acting basal insulin analog that doesn’t cause weight gain,
is available for diabetes patients in the United States.
An important breakthrough treatment in a disease threatening to become
a full-blown epidemic, Levemir is designed for use in once or
twice-daily injections for treatment of adults and children with type
1 diabetes and adults with type 2 diabetes.
In addition to being long-acting, Levemir is an advance because it
curbs the weight gain and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) that are
common side effects of insulin therapy and can be barriers to patients
obtaining glycemic control.
In every clinical trial of the drug, patients treated with Levemir
consistently gained less weight than patients treated with another
basal insulin. Novo Nordisk contends that the drug offers patients up
to 24 hours of effective blood glucose control. Many current insulin
therapies require multiple injections each day to maintain an
acceptable level of blood glucose. For the 20 million Americans with
diabetes, that is good news indeed.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
