| QLT's move to auction block lifts shares
Shares in QLT Inc. shot up almost 25 per cent Wednesday after the company put itself on the auction block with the announcement it is exploring strategic alternatives that could include the sale of some or all of its assets. The move pushed QLT shares up to $4.80 on the Toronto Stock Exchange by Wednesday's close, bolstering a flagging performance that saw them down at $3.88 on Tuesday, close to the 52-week low of $3.44 and far below highs in February of $11.67. The Vancouver biotechnology pioneer and University of B.C. spinoff, which rocketed to success with its anti-blindness treatment Visudyne, has been struggling as competition for the drug eroded revenues and new initiatives in its pipeline have failed to fill the gap. It has also faced costly court challenges related to Visudyne and to its prostate cancer drug Eligard.
Woman with cancer forming non-profit to fight back
Just as the Pap smear nearly wiped out cervical cancer, we hope this test will do the same for breast cancer." In addition to working on getting SOMAD running and undergoing chemotherapy, George has continued to work from home. She is a member of "Active Rain," a cyber community of real estate professionals from all over the country. "I worked and I still work all through my treatments. I find that working helps to divert my attention from the ominous pressure I'm under from the cancer," she said. "It keeps my mind focused on other things." Her posts on the Active Rain blog about her cancer fight caught the eye of Paula Henry, a Realtor from Indianapolis, as well as Phoenix Realtor Jay Thompson. Henry said she was so moved by George's story that she opened a bank account so others could help George with medical bills, which she said are more than $200,000.
Wobbled by Wealth?
The public wants change. "If Americans have ever been angrier with the state of the country," begins a new strategy memo from the polling organization Democracy Corps, "we have not witnessed it." Nor is the demand for change solely about Iraq: there has been a strong revival of economic populism. Democracy Corps asked those who believe America is on the wrong track to choose phrases that best described their views of what's gone wrong. The most commonly chosen were "Big businesses get whatever they want in Washington" and "Leaders have forgotten the middle class." So much, by the way, for pundits who claim that Americans don't care about economic inequality. Longer-term studies of public opinion suggest a substantial leftward shift. James Stimson, a political scientist who uses data from many polls to construct an index of the overall liberalism or conservatism of the electorate, finds that America is now more liberal than it has been since the early 1960s.
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