Misplaced priorities

Patents for wonderful life-saving medications last for 20 years. After then, other firms can copy them with no royalty payment.

Drug prices to plummet in wave of expiring patents

By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Business Writer – 1 day ago

The cost of prescription medicines used by millions of people every day is about to plummet.

The next 14 months will bring generic versions of seven of the world’s 20 best-selling drugs, including the top two: cholesterol fighter Lipitor and blood thinner Plavix.

The magnitude of this wave of expiring drugs patents is unprecedented. Between now and 2016, blockbusters with about $255 billion in global annual sales will go off patent, notes EvaluatePharma Ltd., a London research firm. Generic competition will decimate sales of the brand-name drugs and slash the cost to patients and companies that provide health benefits.

So why do mere books, songs, and movies — which don’t save anybody’s life — get protection for so much longer, to the point where copying them is treated as a federal crime?

Archduke Otto von Habsburg, r.i.p.

A great European Catholic statesman of the post-war era was buried today:

A detail in the funeral ceremony of the Habsburgs stands out:
According to Habsburg tradition, a herald knocked on the door of the Capuchin church above the crypt, announcing the long list of noble and political titles of the deceased. A friar refuses entry twice. Only when von Habsburg was announced as “Otto: a mortal, sinful man”, was his coffin admitted.
An Austrian television drama depicts the rite thus:

The Corapi case: the other shoe drops

For a while, it seemed there was going to be a pause in the case of Father John Corapi, but it only lasted until the holiday was over.

The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity has released more information about the charges against the once-popular priest in a press release quoted here by the NC Register:

SOLT’s fact-finding team has acquired information from Father Corapi’s emails, various witnesses and public sources that, together, state that, during his years of public ministry:

He did have sexual relations and years of cohabitation (in California and Montana) with a woman known to him, when the relationship began, as a prostitute.

  • He repeatedly abused alcohol and drugs.
  • He has recently engaged in “sexting” activity with one or more women in Montana.
  • He holds legal title to over $1 million in real estate, numerous luxury
    vehicles, motorcycles, an ATV, a boat dock, and several motor boats,
    which is a serious violation of his promise of poverty as a perpetually
    professed member of the society.

SOLT has contemporaneously, with the issuance of this press release,
directed Father John Corapi, under obedience, to return home to the
society’s regional office and take up residence there. It has also
ordered him, again under obedience, to dismiss the lawsuit he has filed
against his accuser.

SOLT’s prior direction to Father John Corapi not to engage in any
preaching or teaching, the celebration of the sacraments or other public
ministry continues. Catholics should understand that SOLT does not
consider Father John Corapi as fit for ministry.

The last of the three points above is easy to confirm from public sources, at least with regard to the fact that he is listed as the owner of several pieces of real estate, because land ownership records for Flathead County, Montana are accessible via the Internet: he is listed with ten acres of land; three commercial condo units, numbered side by side; another 2.5 acres, and some boat slips. If he made a promise of poverty, that does seem a bit much. At least the boat slips! :-)

Maybe he’s earned his title of “black sheep” after all. 

Oh, and a memo to bishops and religious superiors: don’t ordain guys with this much of a history of wild living.  Old habits die hard, and usually they don’t die.


Corapi’s game

Looks like John Corapi wants to start a new career in media and public speaking. I don’t know if this means anything, but Matt Swaim noticed the other day that Corapi’s Twitter account is “following” only one other user: Fox News. Mark Shea says that the priest wants to become Sean Hannity with a deeper voice.
Should we start a pool on how soon he’ll get a talk radio show?
Incidentally, I’m thinking it might be best for the Church if he doesn’t get to walk away from his vows. No dispensation, no laicization. And maybe even throw in an order against public speaking or publishing for money.
Reason #1: If he’s going to play hardball and interfere with the Church’s investigation (by demanding that former employees comply with non-disclosure contracts), he shouldn’t get any unjustified favors.
Reason #2: Besides, he hasn’t presented a persuasive reason to waive his vows.
Reason #3: That is, he hasn’t been found guilty of an offense. Not yet, at least.
Reason #4: Can you imagine how Pope John Paul II would regard a laicization request from someone he ordained personally?
Reason #5: If he’s going to insist on starting a new media/speaking career, let him not pretend that the Church approves of his abandonment of his vows.

From the CMAA colloquium

I’m at the Sacred Music Colloquium of the Church Music Association in Pittsburgh, practicing music in one of the five SATB choirs and one of he five Gregorian choirs formed by attendees. Here’s an audio excerpt from today’s Mass at Epiphany Church, an Agnus Dei from the Missa Brevis by Antonio Lotti, conducted by Horst Buchholz, director of music at the St. Louis Cathedral.
Also, a Panis Angelicus by Claudio Casciolini.