misc: January 2007 Archives

I'm such a moron, I get the Sunday paper and I skipped right over the Citizen of the Year page and didn't realize that our friend (and neighbor), Jia, was a finalist! At least not until Alex sent me an email the he got from Jia's wife, Melissa, yesterday.

Jia Liu's life graced by his generosity

It's hard to meet Jia and not remember him. He's kind to everybody he meets, he's helpful, and he's generous 100% of the time. My mom met him once at a party last summer and her and my step-dad still talk about how nice he was and how much they enjoyed talking to him. At our Chinese New Year party last year, Jia and Alex worked away in the kitchen making food for everybody most of the evening. I actually told Jia that he should let me do it and go have fun at the party but I think he was having too much fun helping out. I don't think he could stop doing things for other people even if he tried.

You will never meet another person like Jia...he certainly deserved the nomination and the recognition!

As a side note I want to say that Jia also works for Pfizer, we're not sure if he'll be sticking around Ann Arbor but if he doesn't it'll be hard to think about him leaving. I saw Jennifer Granholm on television talking about making sure that we keep the jobs or create new ones to offset the Pfizer loss. When she spoke though, she spoke about numbers and jobs and not people. Numbers and jobs are important but people like Jia are one of a kind and extremely hard to replace.

I guess it's been almost a week now since the announcement of Pfizer closing here in Ann Arbor. I think it's a sad thing and it'll be rough for the community. But I've realized that it's hard for me not to be torn between the reality of the situation and the thoughts and information constantly running through my brain.

I do know somebody who works at Pfizer, he's our neighbor and I know he's been there a long time. His wife is one of Alex's lab-mates at school. During their wedding we were seated with a whole table his Pfizer co-workers and even not being a science type person I still enjoyed talking with them during the evening. It will be sad to see these smart and wonderful people leave the area.

On the other hand, I've never been keen on the corporate nature of "Big Pharma". I know I've told Alex several times that if he were ever to find a job at a pharmaceutical company I don't think I would like that much. I've always been happy that he's decided to go into the academic world instead. Of course a lot of people have gone the pharmaceutical route and I also don't blame them...Alex could make so much more money if he were to go into industry. These are seriously high paying jobs and it's no wonder people take them.

It seems like when things like this happen, it hard for me not to see these situations in different ways. Obviously research and development jobs leaving the state is going to be rough for our local economy but I've been trying to relate that to 1 talk and 2 books I've been exposed to recently.

#1 - I've been reading my Digital Copyright book for class...it may seem like a stretch to see how this applies to Pfizer but I think it does when you compare it to how pharmaceutical patents are being handled right now. I know that companies want to hold on to their patents, I know Pfizer has some major patents that will be up soon. It's hard for me not to think that this isn't a political message on Pfizer's part... I hate to be the conspiracy theorist type, but Pfizer is still a big corporation and I don't trust big corporations.

#2 - The day after the Pfizer announcement I picked up "Wikinomics" and started reading a few more pages...ironically the chapter discusses what they call "open source pharmaceuticals". I hadn't read the book in awhile since I've been trying to read my Digital Copyright book, but it was almost like I was supposed to read that section at exactly that time! Alex, being a chemist, explained to me that research and development in industries has stalled...it takes longer to get quality products out there and they need to extend their patents to become economically viable (or so they believe). "Wikiomics" supported this and went further to explain that the companies that are emerging from this R&D slump are actually the ones that have opened up their information for mass collaboration. I can't possibly paraphrase every example from the book, but there are some extremely innovative programs...SE Johnson has one, and Merck has been contributing to the Human Genome Project by putting their genome information into public domain right away. I thought about why this would benefit companies though...there is too much information for one company to process on their own. Think about the Human Genome Project and how huge this is...you need the computing power and the brain power of a diverse population in order to make a tiny bit of progress...this is not something that can be accomplished in one company or lab of a few thousand people. I believe that companies that do embrace this more "open source" and collaborative way of innovation will actually achieve success in this new era of technology.

#3 - I went to go see Tracy Kidder speak last night. I haven't read the book "Mountains Beyond Mountains" yet...I checked it out of the library and I will eventually read it but like I mentioned, I've been busy with classes. Anyway, Tracy Kidder's account of Paul Farmer's work in Haiti got me thinking about Big Pharma again...and that is everything I hate about it. The fact that we do have the means of curing these horrible diseases in these impoverished countries and here we are arguing about drug patents on things like Viagra. It makes me sad and a little sick to my stomach.

I know research and development is an expensive process but it seems to me that the problem is where energy is being focused in the industry. I also wonder how much money these companies would save if they just lay off of the excessive drug marketing for awhile.

I am not happy that the balance of things in Ann Arbor and in Michigan will be upset with Pfizer leaving. I was actually excited about the research initiatives going on in this state...but Pfizer made this decision and we all have to live with it...and I think we'll live through it.

Absolute Michigan has set up a nice post on Gerald Ford with links to videos and pictures from his funeral and services.

I caught some of the Grand Rapids footage on television yesterday, I thought some of it was very moving, especially University of Michigan marching band playing "Hail to the Victors" at the airport and the clip I saw of Jennifer Granholm's eulogy at the museum.

I'm interested in visiting the museum now, I have to admit that I didn't know much about President Ford up until now. That might have a lot to do with the fact that I'm originally from Ohio though. Since it's only a few hours drive from here there's no reason why we shouldn't go one day and visit.