Drugmakers are abandoning cheap generics, and now US cancer patients can’t get meds

• June 26, 2023

Arthur Allen | KFF Health News (TNS)

On Nov. 22, three FDA inspectors arrived at the sprawling Intas Pharmaceuticals plant south of Ahmedabad, India, and found hundreds of trash bags full of shredded documents tossed into a garbage truck. Over the next 10 days, the inspectors assessed what looked like a systematic effort to conceal quality problems at the plant, which provided more than half of the U.S. supply of generic cisplatin and carboplatin, two cheap drugs used to treat as many as 500,000 new cancer cases every year.

Seven months later, doctors and their patients are facing the unimaginable: In California, Virginia, and everywhere in between, they are being forced into grim contemplation of untested rationing plans for breast, cervical, bladder, ovarian, lung, testicular, and other cancers. Their decisions are likely to result in preventable deaths.

Cisplatin and carboplatin are among scores of drugs in shortage, including 12 other cancer drugs, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder pills, blood thinners, and antibiotics. Covid-hangover supply chain issues and limited FDA oversight are part of the problem, but the main cause, experts agree, is the underlying weakness of the generic drug industry. Made mostly overseas, these old but crucial drugs are often sold at a loss or for little profit. Domestic manufacturers have little interest in making them, setting their sights instead on high-priced drugs with plump profit margins.

The problem isn’t new, and that’s particularly infuriating to many clinicians. President Joe Biden, whose son Beau died of an aggressive brain cancer, has focused his Cancer Moonshot on discovering cures — undoubtedly expensive ones. Indeed, existing brand-name cancer drugs often cost tens of thousands of dollars a year.

But what about the thousands of patients today who can’t get a drug like cisplatin, approved by the FDA in 1978 and costing as little as $6 a dose?

“It’s just insane,” said Mark Ratain, a cancer doctor and pharmacologist at the University of Chicago. “Your roof is caving in, but you want to build a basketball court in the backyard because your wife is pregnant with twin boys and you want them to be NBA stars when they grow up?”

“It’s just a travesty that this is the level of health care in the United States of America right now,” said Stephen Divers, an oncologist in Hot Springs, Arkansas, who in recent weeks has had to delay or change treatment for numerous bladder, breast, and ovarian cancer patients because his clinic cannot find enough cisplatin and carboplatin. Results from a survey of academic cancer centers released June 7 found 93% couldn’t find enough carboplatin and 70% had cisplatin shortages.

“All day, in between patients, we hold staff meetings trying to figure this out,” said Bonny Moore, an oncologist in Fredericksburg, Virginia. “It’s the most nauseous I’ve ever felt. Our office stayed open during covid; we never had to stop treating patients. We got them vaccinated, kept them safe, and now I can’t get them a $10 drug.”

The 10 cancer clinicians KFF Health News interviewed for this story said that, given current shortages, they prioritize patients who can be cured over later-stage patients, in whom the drugs generally can only slow the disease, and for whom alternatives — though sometimes less effective and often with more side effects — are available. But some doctors are even rationing doses intended to cure.

Isabella McDonald, then a junior at Utah Valley University, was diagnosed in April with a rare, often fatal bone cancer, whose sole treatment for young adults includes the drug methotrexate. When Isabella’s second cycle of treatment began June 5, clinicians advised that she would be getting less than the full dose because of a methotrexate shortage, said her father, Brent.

“They don’t think it will have a negative impact on her treatment, but as far as I am aware, there isn’t any scientific basis to make that conclusion,” he said. “As you can imagine, when they gave us such low odds of her beating this cancer, it feels like we want to give it everything we can and not something short of the standard.”

Brent McDonald stressed that he didn’t blame the staffers at Intermountain Health who take care of Isabella. The family — his other daughter, Cate, made a TikTok video about her sister’s plight — were simply stunned at such a basic flaw in the health care system.

At Moore’s practice, in Virginia, clinicians gave 60% of the optimal dose of carboplatin to some uterine cancer patients during the week of May 16, then shifted to 80% after a small shipment came in the following week. The doctors had to omit carboplatin from normal combination treatments for patients with recurrent disease, she said.

On June 2, Moore and her colleagues were glued to their drug distributor’s website, anxious as teenagers waiting for Taylor Swift tickets to go on sale — only with mortal consequences at stake.

She later emailed KFF Health News: “Carboplatin did NOT come back in stock today. Neither did cisplatin.”

Doses remained at 80%, she said. Things hadn’t changed 10 days later.

Generics Manufacturers Are Pulling Out

The causes of shortages are well established. Everyone wants to pay less, and the middlemen who procure and distribute generics keep driving down wholesale prices. The average net price of generic drugs fell by more than half between 2016 and 2022, according to research by Anthony Sardella, a business professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

As generics manufacturers compete to win sales contracts with the big negotiators of such purchases, such as Vizient and Premier, their profits sink. Some are going out of business. Akorn, which made 75 common generics, went bankrupt and closed in February. Israeli generics giant Teva, which has a portfolio of 3,600 medicines, announced May 18 it was shifting to brand-name drugs and “high-value generics.” Lannett Co., with about 120 generics, announced a Chapter 11 reorganization amid declining revenue. Other companies are in trouble too, said David Gaugh, interim CEO of the Association for Accessible Medicines, the leading generics trade group.

The generics industry used to lose money on about a third of the drugs it produced, but now it’s more like half, Gaugh said. So when a company stops making a drug, others do not necessarily step up, he said. Officials at Fresenius Kabi and Pfizer said they have increased their carboplatin production since March, but not enough to end the shortage. On June 2, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf announced the agency had given emergency authorization for Chinese-made cisplatin to enter the U.S. market, but the impact of the move wasn’t immediately clear.

Cisplatin and carboplatin are made in special production lines under sterile conditions, and expanding or changing the lines requires FDA approval. Bargain-basement prices have pushed production overseas, where it’s harder for the FDA to track quality standards. The Intas plant inspection was a relative rarity in India, where the FDA in 2022 reportedly inspected only 3% of sites that make drugs for the U.S. market. Sardella, the Washington University professor, testified last month that a quarter of all U.S. drug prescriptions are filled by companies that received FDA warning letters in the past 26 months. And pharmaceutical industry product recalls are at their highest level in 18 years, reflecting fragile supply conditions.

The FDA listed 137 drugs in shortage as of June 13, including many essential medicines made by few companies.

Intas voluntarily shut down its Ahmedabad plant after the FDA inspection, and the agency posted its shocking inspection report in January. Accord Healthcare, the U.S. subsidiary of Intas, said in mid-June it had no date for restarting production.

Asked why it waited two months after its inspection to announce the cisplatin shortage, given that Intas supplied more than half the U.S. market for the drug, the FDA said via email that it doesn’t list a drug in shortage until it has “confirmed that overall market demand is not being met.”

Prices for carboplatin, cisplatin, and other drugs have skyrocketed on the so-called gray market, where speculators sell medicines they snapped up in anticipation of shortages. A 600-milligram bottle of carboplatin, normally available for $30, was going for $185 in early May and $345 a week later, said Richard Scanlon, the pharmacist at Moore’s clinic.

“It’s hard to have these conversations with patients — ‘I have your dose for this cycle, but not sure about next cycle,’” said Mark Einstein, chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Health at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

Should Government Step In?

Despite a drug shortage task force and numerous congressional hearings, progress has been slow at best. The 2020 CARES Act gave the FDA the power to require companies to have contingency plans enabling them to respond to shortages, but the agency has not yet implemented guidance to enforce the provisions.

As a result, neither Accord nor other cisplatin makers had a response plan in place when Intas’ plant was shut down, said Soumi Saha, senior vice president of government affairs for Premier, which arranges wholesale drug purchases for more than 4,400 hospitals and health systems.

Premier understood in December that the shutdown endangered the U.S. supply of cisplatin and carboplatin, but it also didn’t issue an immediate alarm, she said. “It’s a fine balance,” she said. “You don’t want to create panic-buying or hoarding.”

More lasting solutions are under discussion. Sardella and others have proposed government subsidies to get U.S. generics plants running full time. Their capacity is now half-idle. If federal agencies like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services paid more for more safely and efficiently produced drugs, it would promote a more stable supply chain, he said.

“At a certain point the system needs to recognize there’s a high cost to low-cost drugs,” said Allan Coukell, senior vice president for public policy at Civica Rx, a nonprofit funded by health systems, foundations, and the federal government that provides about 80 drugs to hospitals in its network. Civica is building a $140 million factory near Petersburg, Virginia, that will produce dozens more, Coukell said.

Ratain and his University of Chicago colleague Satyajit Kosuri recently called for the creation of a strategic inventory buffer for generic medications, something like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, set up in 1975 in response to the OPEC oil crisis.

In fact, Ratain reckons, selling a quarter-million barrels of oil would probably generate enough cash to make and store two years’ worth of carboplatin and cisplatin.

“It would almost literally be a drop in the bucket.”

©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

​ Orange County Register 

Photo gallery: The top moments of the BET Awards 2023

• June 26, 2023

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 25: Busta Rhymes (C) accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award from Spliff Star (far L) onstage during the BET Awards 2023 at Microsoft Theater on June 25, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 25: (L-R) Busta Rhymes accepts the Lifetime Achievment award from Swizz Beatz onstage during the BET Awards 2023 at Microsoft Theater on June 25, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 25: Patti LaBelle performs onstage during the BET Awards 2023 at Microsoft Theater on June 25, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
US singer Patti LaBelle performs on stage during the 2023 BET awards at the Microsoft theatre in Los Angeles, June 25, 2023. (Photo by Michael TRAN / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Best Female Hip Hop artist winner US rapper Latto holds her award on stage during the 2023 BET awards at the Microsoft theatre in Los Angeles, June 25, 2023. (Photo by Michael TRAN / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 25: Ice Spice performs onstage during the BET Awards 2023 at Microsoft Theater on June 25, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
US rapper Ice Spice performs on stage during the 2023 BET awards at the Microsoft theatre in Los Angeles, June 25, 2023. (Photo by Michael TRAN / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 25: Soulja Boy performs onstage during the BET Awards 2023 at Microsoft Theater on June 25, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 25: (L-R) Swizz Beatz and Busta Rhymes perform onstage during the BET Awards 2023 at Microsoft Theater on June 25, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
US rapper GloRilla performs on stage during the 2023 BET awards at the Microsoft theatre in Los Angeles, June 25, 2023. (Photo by Michael TRAN / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)

​ Orange County Register 

Game Day: Angels’ strange weekend is ultimately a plus

• June 26, 2023

Editor’s note: This is the Monday, June 26, 2023, edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

Good morning. When a baseball team has a weekend like the Angels’, I think of a piece of long-ago baseball lore and the right and wrong lessons to take away from it.

First, other sports news: Freddie Freeman got his 2,000th hit but the Dodgers missed a chance to sweep the Astros, losing in extra innings. Nneka Ogwumike was named to the WNBA All-Star Game, then showed why in a Sparks win over Dallas. Angel City couldn’t capitalize on a Houston red card and the teams played to a scoreless draw. Tigres UNAL beat C.F. Pachuca in Mexican soccer’s Campeon de Campeones match in Carson, and will face LAFC in the Campeones Cup between the Liga MX and MLS title winners. Florida routed LSU to set up a decisive Game 3 in the College World Series baseball final today (4 p.m., ESPN). And before NBA free-agent season, columnist Mirjam Swanson got back to basketball basics by attending the annual kids’ clinic hosted by the Clippers’ Terance Mann.

Now, about the Angels’ weekend against the Colorado Rockies in Denver. Not many baseball teams have had weekends like the Angels’. It featured a club-record-setting 25-1 victory on Saturday, but on either side of that, a come-from-ahead 7-4 loss on Friday and a nail-biting 4-3 loss yesterday.

As writer Dennis Georgatos pointed out in covering the series for Southern California News Group readers, the Angels’ plus-20 run difference in a regular-season series is the second-largest in major league history for a team that lost the series, exceeded only by the Chicago Colts’ 23-run edge in losing two of three to the Louisville Colonels in a National League game in 1897 (the team later to be known as the Cubs won the middle game 36-7).

The most historic case of a team racking up runs and losing the series occurred in, no less, the 1960 World Series. The New York Yankees won games by 13, 12 and 10 runs, but the Pittsburgh Pirates won games by 3, 2, 1 and 1 and took the championship. The 1 best remembered came thanks to Bill Mazeroski’s home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7.

“Baseball, like history, moves in strange and shifting eddies,” columnist Jimmy Powers wrote in the New York Daily News, and who hasn’t said exactly that a few times?

If they’d posted Five Things We Learned analysis in those days, one of the five surely would have been that blowout wins are for bullies and losers and that winning close games is the mark of a champion.

No doubt that’s the worry of many Angels fans frustrated by the Halos’ recent 7-7 stretch, which includes two losses by one run and four other losses by the bullpen.

Me? I’ll take the team that wins by 24 runs.

Look: There’s nothing bad about crafting ways to win one-run decisions. But if you’re trying to predict which teams will go farthest, it’s as good if not better to look at run difference than records in one-run games. If you don’t think so, compare those numbers for recent World Series teams in the detailed standings at Baseball-Reference.com.

Something jumps out if you piece together a list of one-sided wins – like the Angels’ on Saturday – since the major leagues as we know them came together in 1901. Those games are almost always won by the better team. They’re usually won by very good teams, mostly playoff-quality teams. The 13 winners include the 1936 Yankees and 1948 Cleveland Indians, both World Series champions.

Those 1960 Yankees and Pirates, of the strange and shifting eddies? The Yankees lost that World Series, but they won the next two and went to the next four. The Pirates finished sixth the next year and didn’t make it back to the World Series for a decade (winning in 1971).

It feels funny to have to say it, but the right lesson from history is that winning big means you’re a good team.

That 24-1 romp is more evidence that the Angels, currently fighting for a wild-card playoff spot, are going to get there.

TODAY

• Angels open a seven-game homestand against the White Sox, with Reid Detmers facing Chicago ace Dylan Cease and (6:30 p.m., BSW).

BETWEEN THE LINES

The Angels are scheduled to face nothing but right-handed starting pitchers in the homestand against the White Sox and Diamondbacks, according to a schedule at FantasyPros.com. They are 34-23 against right-handers (.596, sixth best in baseball), and have produced a betting profit in games against righties (plus 10.5 wagering units, fourth best), according to StatFox.com.

280 CHARACTERS

“Dodgers clawed back to send it into extra innings but couldn’t finish off a sweep of the Astros. But they end this week feeling a lot better about themselves than they did a week ago.” – Bill Plunkett (@BillPlunkettOCR) after the Dodgers won four of five games following last weekend’s sweep by the Giants.

1,000 WORDS

Denied: Tigres goalkeeper Nahuel Guzman and defender Jesus Pizarro, in yellow, prevent Pachuca’s Paullno De La Fuente Gonzalez, in stripes, from scoring in the first half of Tigres’ 2-1 victory in the Mexican league’s annual Campeon de Campeones game yesterday at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson. Photo is by Kevork Djansezian for Getty Images.

YOUR TURN

Thanks for reading. Send suggestions, comments and questions by email at [email protected] and via Twitter @KevinModesti.

Editor’s note: Thanks for reading the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

From sun hats to comfortable shoes: A guide to the Hajj

• June 26, 2023

By Riazat Butt | Associated Press

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Straw hats, cross-body bags, and collapsible chairs: These are just some of the essentials Muslims bring to the Hajj pilgrimage.

Spiritually, the five-day Hajj is awe-inspiring for the faithful, an experience they say brings them closer to God and to the entire Muslim world.

Physically, it’s grueling. Pilgrims walk outdoors for hours in broiling heat around holy sites in Mecca and the surrounding desert. They are caught in unimaginable and overwhelming crowds, all trying to get to the same place. Barriers directing the traffic mean that if you miss your turn, you might walk hours more to get where you want to be.

So the more than 2 million pilgrims don’t just learn the complicated rules of how to properly perform the rituals, which began Monday. They also pick up helpful hints and tricks of the trade to get by, learned from other hajjis — as those who have completed the pilgrimage are known.

Here’s a look at what they say is essential gear.

WHAT TO WEAR

Dress for the heat, since daytime temperatures regularly soar past 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The majority of rituals take place outdoors in the desert, including climbing the Mount of Mercy and stoning the Jamarat, a row of pillars representing the devil.

Sun hats are key. Pilgrims often opt for wide-brimmed straw hats or even cowboy hats. Umbrellas of every color are everywhere. Some balance their prayer mats on their heads or the canopies from umbrellas.

All men are required to wear simple white robes without any stitching, a rule aimed at uniting rich and poor. Women must forego beauty products and cover their hair but have more latitude to wear fabrics from their native countries, resulting in a colorful display of Islam’s multiculturalism.

When it comes to footwear, it’s best to wear something that’s durable for the long walks but that also slips on and off easily, as pilgrims must remove their shoes before entering Mecca’s Grand Mosque.

Sandals are sensible, but some pilgrims say it’s best also to wear socks as the mosque’s marble floor can be surprisingly cold as they walk around the Kaaba seven times.

WHAT TO CARRY

A daypack of some kind is essential for carrying food, water, sunscreen and other sundries. But backpacks can be a hassle when you’re crammed shoulder-to-shoulder.

Far more popular are cross-body bags that you can access without turning around.

Many pilgrims also carry a separate drawstring bag or pouch for their shoes. Usually at mosques, you can leave your shoes with an attendant at the entrance, but with hundreds of thousands at the Grand Mosque, that’s a sure way to lose your shoes, or at best waste a long time getting them back. It would also mean you have to exit the same way you entered, not always possible when the crowd takes you in another direction.

Umaima Hafez, a five-time hajjah from Egypt, packs like a pro.

Sitting on her portable plastic stool, she reaches into her large pack and pulls out a blanket, homemade granola and crackers, a travel towel that she wets and places on her head when it gets hot, an extra-thick prayer mat — for her knees — and some medications. The stool fits into the bag as well. She’ll carry it throughout Hajj, then leave it behind for someone else to use.

She insists her bag isn’t heavy. “Everything is beautiful and easy with God. … And people give out a lot of water and food here.”

Hassan Hussain, a 24-year-old first-time pilgrim from Britain, also went for a maximal approach. His bag holds his phone, charging cable, power bank, sunglasses, water bottle, British and Saudi currency, bank cards, his shoe bag, a prayer mat and hydrating facial mist.

He said his sister, who did the Hajj last year, told him what to bring. His advice to other pilgrims is to overpack.

“You don’t know when you’re going to need things,” he said. “The person next to you might need things. Just take everything and work it out as you go along.”

In contrast, Ali Ibn Mousa, a 30-year-old Russian and father of seven, is going for maneuverability and speed, so he stays light.

His drawstring bag holds only his phone and his pilgrim ID. He’s more interested in what he will bring back from the Hajj, saying that alongside the spiritual journey he’s on the lookout for a second wife.

“If I had a heavy bag, I wouldn’t be able to do some of the things I want to,” he said. “That’s why I take a small bag that is easy to carry, so I can run inside” while circling the Kaaba.

CAMPOUT CHECKLIST

The giant flows of pilgrims move back and forth between holy sites spread out over a length of more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Grand Mosque to the Mount of Mercy, or Mount Arafat, out in the desert. Even within a single ritual site, it can take much of the day to walk from one end to another, like Mina, where pilgrims will stay in one of the world’s largest tent camps and stone the pillars representing the devil.

A pilgrim has to be prepared to be stuck in a spot outside for ages, waiting for a transport to arrive or a crowd to clear, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Ikram Mohammed’s supermarket in Mecca sells camping essentials such as lightweight tents, sleeping mats and collapsible water pouches.

“They buy dried fruit and nuts, biscuits, chips. Anything they can consume easily while they are on the move that doesn’t need refrigeration or utensils,” Mohammed said. A special section specializes in fragrance-free toiletries, in keeping with the prohibition on perfume.

Mohammed also sells souvenirs for pilgrims to take back home with them, everything from chocolate and sweets to water from the sacred Zamzam well near the Kaaba.

Another popular item: Pain relief cream for achy joints.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

​ Orange County Register 

‘Fiddler on the Roof’ lyricist Sheldon Harnick dies at 99

• June 26, 2023

By Mark Kennedy | Associated Press

NEW YORK — Tony- and Grammy Award-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who with composer Jerry Bock made up the premier musical-theater songwriting duos of the 1950s and 1960s with shows such as “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Fiorello!” and “The Apple Tree,” has died. He was 99.

Known for his wry, subtle humor and deft wordplay, Harnick died in his sleep Friday in New York City of natural causes, said Sean Katz, Harnick’s publicist.

Broadway artists paid their respects on social media, with “Schmigadoon!” writer Cinco Paul calling him “one of the all-time great musical theater lyricists” and actor Jackie Hoffman lovingly writing: “Like all brilliant persnickety lyricists he was a pain in the tuchus.”

Bock and Harnick first hit success for the music and lyrics to “Fiorello!,” which earned them each Tonys and a rare Pulitzer Prize in 1960. In addition, Harnick was nominated for Tonys in 1967 for “The Apple Tree,” in 1971 for “The Rothschilds” and in 1994 for “Cyrano — The Musical.” But their masterpiece was “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Bock and Harnick were first introduced at a restaurant by actor Jack Cassidy after the opening-night performance of “Shangri-La,” a musical in which Harnick had helped with the lyrics. The first Harnick-Bock musical was “The Body Beautiful” in 1958.

“I think in all of the years that we worked together, I only remember one or two arguments — and those were at the beginning of the collaboration when we were still feeling each other out,” Harnick, who collaborated with Bock for 13 years, recalled in an interview with The Associated Press in 2010. “Once we got past that, he was wonderful to work with.”

They would form one of the most influential partnerships in Broadway history. Producers Robert E. Griffith and Hal Prince had liked the songs from “The Body Beautiful,” and they contracted Bock and Harnick to write the score for their next production, “Fiorello!,” a musical about the reformist mayor of New York City.

Bock and Harnick then collaborated on “Tenderloin” in 1960 and “She Loves Me” three years later. Neither was a hit — although “She Loves Me” won a Grammy for best score from a cast album — but their next one was a monster that continues to be performed worldwide: “Fiddler on the Roof.” It earned two Tony Awards in 1965.

Based on stories by Sholom Aleichem that were adapted into a libretto by Stein, “Fiddler” dealt with the experience of Eastern European Orthodox Jews in the Russian village of Anatevka in the year 1905. It starred Zero Mostel as Teyve, had an almost eight-year run and offered the world such stunning songs as “Sunrise, Sunset,” “If I Were a Rich Man” and “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.” The most recent Broadway revival starred Danny Burstein as Tevye and earned a best revival Tony nomination.

In a masterpiece of laughter and tenderness, Harnick’s lyrics were poignant and honest, as when the hero Tevye sings, “Lord who made the lion and the lamb/You decreed I should be what I am/Would it spoil some vast eternal plan/If I were a wealthy man?”

Harvey Fierstein, who played Tevye in a Broadway revival starting in 2004 said in a statement that Harnick’s “lyrics were clear and purposeful and never lapsed into cliche. You’d never catch him relying on easy rhymes or ‘lists’ to fill a musical phrase. He always sought and told the truth for the character and so made acting his songs a joy.”

Bock and Harnick next wrote the book as well as the score for “The Apple Tree,” in 1966, and the score for “The Rothschilds,” with a book by Sherman Yellen, in 1970. It was the last collaboration between the two: Bock decided that the time had come for him to be his own lyricist and he put out two experimental albums in the early 1970s.

Harnick went on to collaborate with Michel Legrand on “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” in 1979 and a musical of “A Christmas Carol” in 1981; Mary Rodgers on a version of “Pinocchio” in 1973; Arnold Black on a musical of “The Phantom Tollbooth”; and Richard Rodgers on the score to “Rex” in 1976, a Broadway musical about Henry VIII.

He also wrote lyrics for the song “William Wants a Doll” for Marlo Thomas’ TV special “Free to Be … You and Me” and several original opera librettos, including “Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines” and “Love in Two Countries.” He won a Grammy for writing the libretto for “The Merry Widow” featuring Beverly Sills.

His work for television and film ranged from songs for the HBO animated film “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” in 1991 with music by Stephen Lawrence, to lyrics for the opening number of the 1988 Academy Awards telecast. He wrote the theme songs for two films, both with music by Cy Coleman: “The Heartbreak Kid” in 1972 and “Blame it On Rio” in 1984.

In 2014, off-Broadway’s The York Theatre Company revived some of Harnick’s early works, including “Malpractice Makes Perfect,” “Dragons” and “Tenderloin.” “She Loves Me” was last revived on Broadway in 2016 in a Tony-nominated show starring Zachary Levi.

Harnick was born and raised in Chicago and earned a bachelor’s degree in music from the Northwestern University School of Music after serving in the army during World War II. Trained in the violin, he decided to try his luck as a songwriter in New York.

Related Articles

His early songs included “The Ballad of the Shape of Things,” later recorded by the Kingston Trio, and the Cole Porter spoof, “Boston Beguine,” from the revue “New Faces of 1952.”

He and his wife, artist Margery Gray Harnick, had two children, Beth and Matthew, and four grandchildren. Harnick had an earlier marriage to actress Elaine May. He was a longtime member of the Dramatists Guild and Songwriters Guild.

Kristin Chenoweth, who starred in a 2006 revival of “The Apple Tree,” on Twitter called it “one of my favorite professional experiences of my career,” adding about Harnick: “I loved his musings. His writings. His soul.”

​ Orange County Register 

Ducks goalie coach Sudarshan Maharaj diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

• June 26, 2023

Sudarshan “Sudsie” Maharaj, the Ducks’ long-time and well-respected goaltending coach, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the team announced on Monday

Maharaj, 59, received the diagnosis after the conclusion of the Ducks’ regular season and has been receiving treatment and is scheduled eventually to have surgery. Following surgery, the team said that Maharaj “anticipates returning to his role with the Ducks.”

The Ducks will be bringing on an assistant goaltending coach while Maharaj continues his treatment and recovery, a hire to be made by general manager Pat Verbeek and Maharaj.

“While this has been a very difficult time, I have had amazing support from my family and the Ducks organization, especially owners Henry and Susan Samueli,” Maharaj said in a statement released by the team. “A special thanks also to Jillian Samueli for her amazing support and friendship.

“I plan on fighting this disease vigorously with the help of my tremendous doctors both in Toronto and with the Ducks. The hockey community is an amazingly supportive place, and I look forward to seeing you all soon.”

The Ducks also released a statement from owners Henry and Susan Samueli:

“We love Sudsie (Maharaj) so much! An amazing person and friend to so many in hockey. Our organization sends heartfelt support to his wife Yvonne, and daughters Alexandra and Katherine. Sudsie is bound and determined to beat this terrible disease, and we can’t wait until he does.”

Maharaj had first thought he was dealing with an ulcer.

“Basically, be aware … when we’re young we (think) we are invincible and we’re not always in tune with our own health,” he said in an interview with the Orange County Register. “It’s so important to listen to your body and make it a priority of getting yourself checked out and making sure you’re listening to your body.”

He has been with the organization since the 2013-14 season – serving as goaltending consultant with the Norfolk Admirals, which was then the Ducks’ AHL affiliate. Maharaj was named the Ducks goaltending coach, starting in the 2016-17 season. Previously, he spent eight seasons in the New York Islanders organization, starting in 2003-04.

When Maharaj joined the Islanders, he became the first goaltending coach of Indian descent to work in the NHL on a full-time basis. He was born in Trinidad and moved to Toronto at 6.

“More and more people of different cultures are getting involved in hockey in general,” he told NHL.com in 2018. “I think that’s having more of an impact rather than, say myself, being a role model.”

In March, the Ducks announced that assistant coach Mike Stothers had been diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma. Stothers underwent surgery in addition to immunotherapy and follow-up appointments have been encouraging.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

Can homebuilding save the US economy?

• June 26, 2023

After eight straight quarters of contraction, it looks like the slide in US residential investment may be finished. The nascent rebound now underway is set to remove a major obstacle to ongoing economic expansion.

With new construction activity at the highest level in more than a year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow tracker is projecting residential investment added 0.1% to growth in gross domestic product in the second quarter. Though it may not sound like much, that would mark the first positive contribution since early 2021.

The new-home market has been slowly coming out of the woods as falling materials costs and vanishing logistics constraints have allowed builders to work their way through pandemic-era backlogs. Limited availability in the resale market is also pushing many prospective buyers toward new construction, helping support demand even as mortgage rates remain elevated.

“Construction was at the center of the storm for the surge in inflation and the supply-chain turmoil of 2021 and 2022,” said Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank. “The recent good news for construction makes it easier to imagine a soft or at least soft-ish landing for the economy.”

Government data out earlier this week showed new construction surged in May by the most since 2016, and applications for permits to build — a proxy of future activity — also rose. The unexpected increase sent homebuilding stocks rallying to a fresh all-time high and helped explain why builder sentiment is the most upbeat in almost a year.

A growing number of prospective buyers are opting for new homes amid limited availability in the resale market, where high mortgage rates have had a big impact. Before the pandemic, existing properties made up about 90% of all homes for sale — a number that as of April was closer to 70%.

It hinges on the outlook for monetary policy. The Fed has already raised its benchmark interest rate by five percentage points in a little over a year, and further increases could start to weigh on new-home construction again, said Priscilla Thiagamoorthy, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

“Now that the Fed has continued to signal that rate hikes are still at play, we won’t see further improvement from here,” Thiagamoorthy said. “If rates continue to rise more than one more time, that does risk the chance of a harder landing.”

Another risk is that the number of homes under construction could fall as backlogs ease and applications for permits lag the pace of housing starts. Elevated inventories of new homes could also make builders hesitant to boost output, which risks limiting upside momentum in residential investment.

“While the stock market has surged this year and the housing sector appears to have stabilized, the worst is yet to come for credit. A slowing economy will lead to increases in consumer and corporate defaults, which will tighten credit severely for the rest of the economy,” saus Bloomberg economists Anna Wong, Stuart Paul, Eliza Winger and Jonathan Church.

Still, after subtracting from growth for the longest stretch since 2005-2009, home construction is finally poised to offer the economy some breathing room at a time when other sectors are starting to cool.

Ahead of this week’s slew of housing data, Wells Fargo & Co. economists were anticipating residential investment to be a drag on GDP growth for the remainder of the year.

“Now, I would say some of the stronger-than-expected housing data means that there’s some upside risk to that forecast,” said Charles Dougherty, a senior economist at Wells Fargo. “We’re not looking for a massive run-up in new construction, but some modest pace seems very likely.”

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register 

No recession but sticky inflation. That’s what 71 economists predict.

• June 26, 2023

The US economy is now expected to narrowly dodge a recession this year but underlying inflation will be faster than previously thought, according to the latest Bloomberg monthly survey of economists.

Gross domestic product is now forecast to only contract in the final three months of the year, and it’s projected to merely stagnate in the third quarter instead of shrink, the June survey showed.

While estimates were marked up for the current quarter and next — due to stronger consumer spending and upward revisions to business investment — GDP growth is seen slightly weaker through the end of 2024.

At the same time, economists see the personal consumption expenditures price index, excluding food and energy, rising at a faster pace over the next year than they did in the May survey. That corroborates the Federal Reserve’s view as well, supporting policymakers’ assertion that another two interest-rate hikes will probably be appropriate this year.

According to the median forecast, economists see one more rate hike in the third quarter, with the federal funds rate holding in a 5.25%-5.5% range through yearend before an expected quarter-point cut in early 2024.

The survey of 71 economists from June 16-21 showed stronger views of the labor market. Forecasters mostly see increased hiring this year and next, and they also expect the unemployment rate will peak at a slightly lower level. That helps explain projections for sustained consumer spending.

The findings also support the notion that the housing market bottom has passed. While sales of previously owned homes are struggling for momentum, buyers are seeking new construction and builders have been responding to demand. Economists see that trend continuing with higher new-home sales over the next year and more housing starts.

Related Articles

​ Orange County Register