Clinical trial comparison was off base
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I disagree with your article on clinical trials in Massachusetts ("Bay State actually a leader in clinical trials," Sept. 10). What is the trend in the number of clinical trials in Massachusetts over the past three years? Is it flat or down? Most companies are sending some of their clinical trails to India, so the comparison with other states is the wrong metric.
A $50 limit on gifts like pizzas and pens is counterproductive. The complacency of our leaders is frightening, and a significant amount of the potential growth in these studies (and jobs) could go overseas.
Doctors should be greatly insulted when anyone (especially another doctor) suggests they prescribe a medication or device without investigating the science behind their decision, or distribute free samples to their patients without believing that is the best choice for them.
Do you think India would set such a limit on clinical trials?
For a 15-minute sales presentation (already regulated by FDA) and "free pizza," would the doctors review the science behind this and question their colleagues about it before rushing to prescribe it with their free pens and notepads?
Over-regulation is not the answer to Massachusetts' competitive challenge. Will our legislators realize this in time to prevent the unintended consequences? That is the $50 question.
Wayne O. Aruda, Wilmington
This summer's federal indictment charging eight people from other countries for the theft of more than 40 million credit and debit card account numbers in the TJX case is strong evidence that organized credit card fraud is migrating to the United States as Europe and much of the rest of the world adopts smart bank cards.
Bank cards and payment networks can be made more secure by adding smart card technology to the cards. It would make stolen credit and debit card account information nearly useless to criminals at the point of sale. France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, and many other countries have migration plans and are well underway to migrate to smart bank cards. Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the rest of Latin America are now starting to migrate to chip cards.
Many of us in the global smart card community have predicted fraud would eventually migrate to countries where criminals can still clone and use magnetic stripe cards. Unfortunately, the United States is one of them.
Putting chips on US bank cards impacts all payments industry stakeholders and requires significant investment, so the industry must weigh the value of the security benefits against these investments. Nonetheless, there are many indicators that it is a good time to look at emerging trends affecting payment system security and start the discussion.
Randy Vanderhoof,
Mercerville, N.J.
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