Wampum

I’ll Have What She's Having

Two articles in today’s New York Times reminded me of a famous scene from Rob Reiner’s movie, When Harry Met Sally.

The first article tells the story of New York’s Stewart Rahr’s business success. That success is substantial:

Stewart Rahr's new $45 million East Hampton estate, the most expensive house ever purchased in New York State, is just across the pond from Steven Spielberg's. Mr. Rahr plays golf with Donald Trump and practices putting on an indoor green in the basement of his warehouse in Queens. He and his wife, Carol, last drew attention in 2003 when they bought four works of art, including a Renoir and a Picasso, in one sitting at Sotheby's.

Mr. Rahr made his money delivering pharmaceuticals from the drug manufacturers to pharmacies. That seemingly routine business developed into a form of arbitrage:

Over the last 20 years, the packing and shipping of drugs evolved into a game of arbitrage, called speculative buying, with distributors like Mr. Rahr wagering on drug price increases.

This common industry practice seems more fitting to a casino than a distribution warehouse. And in the 1990's and the early years of this decade, with prices far outstripping inflation, it was a sure bet.

Knowing that drug manufacturers typically increased prices at the same time, often in January, drug middlemen like Mr. Rahr, the sole owner of Kinray, which is based in Queens, made millions by overstocking their warehouses before manufacturers announced price increases. By acquiring extra inventory at the lower price, distributors made quick profits once they sold the drugs at higher prices a short time later to retail pharmacies.

That brings me to the second story in the Times. In it Psychopharmacologist Dr. Richard Friedman recounts his experience with a patient he identifies as Susan:

She'd come to see me because she was depressed, and I'd successfully treated her with a course of Zoloft, a popular antidepressant. But as often happens, Susan's desire for sex had vanished along with her depressed mood…

There were three possible approaches, I told her. She could stop the drug from time to time, a strategy that might temporarily restore her sex drive but could cause discontinuation symptoms; she could lower the dose of the antidepressant, which might provoke a relapse of depression; or we could try to counteract the side effects with another medication.

Susan decided on the third option and Dr. Friedman prescribed Wellbutrin along with Susan’s anti-depressant. Dr. Friedman continues the story:

Two weeks later, Susan called from her cellphone to say that the antidote was working. While shopping, she said, she spontaneously had an orgasm that had lasted on and off for nearly two hours . She was more delighted than alarmed, but I was stunned.

I certainly hope that Mr. Rahr’s company has a large stockpile of Wellbutrin. I expect that the price will skyrocket as a result of the Times story. After reading the story, I expect millions of people to call their doctors and say, “I'll have what she is having.”

Posted by Dwight Meredith at January 26, 2005 02:10 PM | TrackBack