Avandia -- it might help, if it doesn't kill you

Seems like the honorable thing to do in this case is pull the drug, at least temporarily, from the market. Profit is a powerful force.

In November of last year, GlaxoSmithKline changes its prescribing information after a study found a 43% increase in heart attack risk for those taking rosiglitazone (name brand Avandia). Now, Public Citizen has called for the drug to be banned, and the American Diabetes Association and a European counterpart unanimously advised doctors against using Avandia in updated treatment guidelines.

The reason is 14 cases of liver failure linked to the drug, including 12 deaths. There is also evidence of increased risk of heart attacks, heart failure, bone fractures, anemia and macular (retinal) edema with vision loss. Safer, more effective drugs for Type 2 diabetes include metformin (sold in Canada under the brand names Glucophag Glumetza or in generic forms with "metformin" as part of the name) and glipizide (brand name Glucotrol), Public Citizen said.

In the statement, Glaxo said it does not believe Avandia causes liver failure and that a review by an independent panel earlier this year said the liver risks were acceptable. The company added heart attack data is inconclusive and that Avandia is safe and effective, when used as directed.

Scmoozing Made Simple

My Founders breakfast group was blessed to receive a gift at our last meeting from a fellow member, friend and colleague Adrienne Zoble (www.azobleassoc.com) -- her annual "Schmoozing Calendar." This year she had it done by those uber-creatives at Toolbox (www.toolboxcreative.com).

Adrienne delivers direct, simple marketing advice, and this calendar distills that perfectly. Each month has weekly suggestions on meetings to have with someone in your network. It also has a brief script or statement of what you might say when you call to invite someone to meet, for those of us who might need a little help on that front.

She says it better than I can:

A wise soul said long ago, "It's not always what you know, it's whom you know." How well are you tapping into the myriad people in your life for mutual leads and referrals?

This calendar provides weekly suggestions of someone you might invite to breakfast, lunch or coffee. Develop confidence and trust in each other. Build relationships and grow your business.

You can get a copy of Adrienne's Schmoozing Calendar from her website, www.azobleassoc.com, under the ebooks link.

Full disclosure -- Adrienne has since asked me to help her promote the calendar, so I've created a news release and I'm doing some media relations work to help get the word out.

How to lose friends and alienate supporters

Sarah Palin had an appearance here this week, at the Larimer County Fairgrounds Budweiser Events Center. The local paper made a fuss over a long line of people at Republican HQ waiting to get free tickets. The print media and Denver TV stations covered her appearance Monday.

There was a little problem, though -- the venue holds 7,200, and rumor has it that as many as 15,000 tickets were passed out. The McCain campaign says it passed out 11,000 tickets. Initial plans were to admit 9,000, diverting 2,000 of those people to an overflow area at an adjacent bulding.

On site, some people waited as much as two hours or more, and never got in the building. Several thousand people were left waiting outside in the cold, despite hundreds of empty seats inside.

There was confusion between local law enforcement, the fire department and the Secret Service. There is mention in the Fort Collins newspaper today that as many as 500 people were let into the building without being screened or going through metal detectors -- scary.

Of course, the fire marshall is blaming the Secret Service, and vice versa, for the decision to stop admitting people.

For McCain/Palin supporters, this fiasco is not enough to cause any doubt as to how to vote; but I have to imagine that anyone who wanted to go and see Palin as part of their decision-making process and who did not get in has to be less than impressed.

Carbonite, maybe not so much

I had an external hard drive from Maxtor that I was using to back up my PC. Not the safest -- a fire or tornado or whatever would destroy my PC, and the drive that sat right next to it. But some measure of safety.

The drive, as this model from Maxtor is known to do, started dying. I got a promo offer from Carbonite to subscribe, and get a free year subscription for another computer or a friend. Figured I would do the trial, and give the freebie to my wife, Jen.

All went well -- until I tried to pay for my subscription today. The website was hanging, I could not get to a confirmation page that I was paid and covered. Got on the phone -- I was 8th in line, and waited, working, my speakerphone on, for way too long. Tried online chat -- I was 15th in the queue. I emailed them -- and still have not heard anything back.

Then, an email came saying I was signed up, with info on the free offer. All is well again, for now -- but if I ever have trouble, I'm concerned about what will happen. It seems like their web chat agents and their phone agents need some additional help to get to customers in a more timely manner.

Update: I was impressed that Carbonite sought out and commented on my blog to apologize and explain. The service is really pretty simple -- set it and forget it. But then I got a double charge on my credit card because of their system glitch. They've promised me a refund of the extra charge in 3-5 days.

Insta-Bench rocks!

I have a great customer service/web/social media story to share.

I coach a boys soccer team. We have a folding, portable bench -- like the chairs you see, but that folds out to seat four players on the sideline. There are a couple of brands out there, but ours is from InstaBench.

Not long after we got it, the backing on the fabric started peeling off. I thought it was because it spent too much time in the hot trunk of my car. We've been living with it, but it was only a matter of time until it ripped or tore. Then the bag it came with to haul it around basically disintegrated. We've been hauling it around by itself.

I went to a local canvas/tent shop, and it was almost $60 to replace the fabric seat -- the frame is fine, and I thought it would be a shame to throw it away.

I googled something like Insta-Bench and repair. I found the bench for sale on Amazon, with reviews, most of them very favorable. I found one person who complained, describing the same story I have. He had then amended his complaint, saying that InstaBench sent him new seat material and a new bag at no cost, under warranty.

I pulled up the InstaBench website, told them about the problem, they wrote back quickly -- in minutes -- saying they had a few problems, we were under warranty, and where should they send the repair kit, no charge. They could not give me navy blue, but I could have my choice of colors, including royal blue -- which is one of our team colors.

It arrived today, bag, hardware and seat material. It is clearly of better quality than the stuff that fell apart. I just need to put it on the frame, no big deal.

Awesome customer service.

I will certainly recommend InstaBench to anyone I can in the future.

AIDS origin, literature and rememberance

There's an AP article I found today dating the origin of the AIDS virus to about 100 years ago according to the journal Nature.

This story reminded me of a class I took as an undergrad in, I think, 1988 or 89, The Literature of AIDS, taught by Professor Carol Kyle of the English Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

It was a groundbreaking class at the time, and it had a profound impact on me. I had to take a special topics class to meet the requirements of my English major, and a couple of options fit into my schedule -- one about African American literature, and Professor Kyle's class.

I'm embarrassed to say my thinking at the time was, "do I want to sit in class twice a week with a bunch of angry blacks, or a bunch of angry gays?" It turned out to be one of the most stimulating and enjoyable courses I ever took, and it put a human face, for me, on the victims of what was then a terrifying new disease.

I shared that with Prof. Kyle -- after I had graduated, she contacted me, and said she was writing a book on the course, and wanted to quote me in it. It seems she never finished the project, since she passed unexpectedly in 1995. I did not find that out until years later -- the University lost a great teacher and a great person.