Posted By: CORPORATE HOUSING

To develop innovative infusion and injection systems that allow a simpler, more precise and reliable delivery of liquid medication than with conventional devices and procedures. In the early 80's the two brothers Willy and Peter Michel recognise that the treatment of diabetes could be substantially improved and the quality of life of patients significantly enhanced with sophisticated programmable insulin pumps. Ever ambitious they decide to develop the world's smallest and best insulin pump. While Willy Michel has worked as an executive in the pharmaceutical industry and is an expert in diabetes treatment, Peter Michel contributes his extensive theoretical and practical knowledge in physics and engineering. Unfortunately, what the two young entrepreneurs are still lacking is sufficient funding - only thanks to help by a government agency can the financing of their project be completed.

...which soon becomes reality...

1984    

Founding of Disetronic Medical Systems AG with initially three employees. Development of the first insulin pump MRS.
   
             
1985    

Aventis (Hoechst) takes over the marketing and distribution of the MRS insulin pump in important European markets.
Sales in the first business year:
CHF 500,000.
   
             
1986    

Development of the OptiPen insulin pen for Aventis, which is much easier to use and more precise than conventional syringes.
   
             
1987    

Purchase of the commercial building Brunnmatt in Burgdorf as the growth requires ever more space.
     
             
1988    

Set-up of the first foreign sales subsidiary in Sulzbach, Germany, to market insulin pumps directly.
   
             
1989    

Purchase of a production plant in Kiel, Germany, where micro-dosage pumps for Ferring are manufactured.
Pharmacia launches the KabiPen, developed and manufactured by Disetronic, for the treatment of growth disorders.
   

             
1990    

Sales exceed CHF 10 million for the first time.
Disetronic Holding AG is founded.
     
             
1991    

Market launch of several new products: H-TRON V100, the second generation insulin pump, Panomat, a micro-dosage pump for therapies beyond diabetes care, and the second generation of the OptiPen for Aventis (featuring an electronic display of the dose for the first time).
Set-up of a sales subsidiary in the USA.
   
             
1992     Manufacturing of sterile pen cannulas under clean-room conditions in Burgdorf starts.    
             
1993     The quality management system is certified to comply with ISO 9001 / EN 29001 and EN 46001.    
             
1994    

Eli Lilly launches the Humatro-Pen, developed and manufactured by Disetronic, for the treatment of growth disorders. Acquisition of Décolletage AG, an important supplier of precision turned parts.
     
             
1995    

Sales exceed CHF 50 million for the first time. Move into a modern and spacious building extension in Burgdorf.
Set-up of a sales subsidiary in the Netherlands. Pharmacia launches the second generation of its growth hormone pen.
   
             
1996    

Launch of H-TRONplus, the third generation insulin pump, and of Penfine, a pen cannula that does not have to be screwed on, but is simply clicked on. Set-up of a sales subsidiary in France.
Initial public offering of Disetronic Holding’s shares. The issue of 72,000 bearer shares at CHF 1350 (adjusted CHF 168.75) each is a huge success. The opening price exceeds the offering price by more than 50%.
   
             
1997    

Sales exceed CHF 100 million for the first time. Acquisition of Micro Med, Portsmouth NH (USA), a contract manufacturer of sterile products, and of the Dutch company Dahedi Medical Systems, manufacturer of the world’s smallest insulin pump. Boehringer Mannheim launches the Reco-Pen, developed and manufactured by Disetronic, for the treatment of renal anaemia with EPO.
   
             
1998    

Aventis launches OptiPen Pro, the third generation insulin pen from Disetronic. Acquisition of Rondo AG and Dividella AG, manufacturers of high-quality packaging materials and packaging machines for the packaging of medication and pens in environmentally friendly cardboard. The two companies form the new Pharmaceutical Packaging Systems division.
Set-up of sales subsidiaries in Scandinavia and Austria.
     
             
1999    

The headcount of the Disetronic Group exceeds 1000 employees for the first time.
Set-up of a sales subsidiary in Great Britain.
     
             
2000    

Sales exceed CHF 250 million for the first time.
Set-up of a sales subsidiary in Italy.
Presentation of the GlucOnline development project for a continuous glucose sensor.
The market launch of the D-TRON is setting a new standard for the convenience and performance of insulin pumps.
Introduction of the Dahedi in the US market. Partnership with TheraSense Inc., Alameda CA, for the marketing and distribution of the innovative FreeStyle blood glucose measurement system in selected European countries.
Start of the production of the OptiSet ready-to-use pen for Aventis.
   
             
2001    

Launch of FreeStyle in Germany, Austria, Finland and Sweden and introduction of the high-end Ultraflex infusion set to the US market.
Purchase of a 6% stake in TheraSense.
   
     
     
2002     Divestiture of the Pharma packaging Systems business - concentration on the two core activities Infusion and Injection systems.
Launch of FreeStyle in the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland.    

(UNEDITED - Naples Health Insurance) How did something so right go so wrong? Americans cheered when they heard about affordable insurance for everyone.

Today, however, that dream has quickly faded and affordable care for everyone has now turned into an idea that every individual must purchase health care or be fined at the end of the tax year.

Most insurance premiums look more like a second mortgages. What many hard working American families could not afford in the first place is going to be forced upon them by our elected leaders. The justification for this was the costs of health care was going up because so many people either opted not to pay for the insurance or were unable to do so.

Sunday morning I read an AP Press release concerning a company called Anthem, or Blue Cross of California who wanted to raise the policy rates from 25 to as much as 39% on roughly 700,000 existing California customers. The article pointed out that Anthem Blue Cross is sending rate increases out to customers in at least three other states that will amount to 15% more for premiums. In Maine, Blue Cross is asking for an increase of 23% which is on top of a 32% increase last year. All in all the citizens of Maine will see premiums rise up to 55% in two years.

When asked what justification Anthem Blue Cross had fore these massive increases and I quote-

"The company has blamed the increased rates on the recession, rising medical costs and more healthy people dropping out of the plan, leaving fewer premium dollars to cover costs. It has insisted that the situation shows the need for a health-care overhaul that requires everyone to have health insurance."

This sounds familiar but I wonder who actually said it, our leaders or the insurance giants?

Anthem Blue Cross is a subsidiary of insurance giant WellPoint Inc. of Indianapolis. According to the article WellPoint Inc. reported a profit of $4.75 billion in the last quarter of 2009.

It is interesting, to me, that our elected leaders who have jurisdiction over the insurance process have allowed this to continue or could even consider the forced medical concept.

WHY?

PLEASE VOTE IN NOVEMBER!

Thomas Armstrong

Perry

Health insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross said it was raising rates on thousands of individual policyholders in California because the cost of their medical care exceeded the premiums they paid last year.

At the same time, other parts of Anthem reaped a profit. A Times analysis of the company's regulatory filings shows that $525 million in Anthem's earnings in 2009 was shipped to its corporate parent WellPoint Inc. The analysis was not disputed by Anthem.

Anthem Blue Cross has been so profitable that, since WellPoint acquired it in 2004, it has contributed more than $4.5 billion to the parent company's bottom line.

Critics say some of those gains should have been kept in California and used to cover the losses on Anthem's individual policies. Instead, the company turned to individual policyholders to make up the losses with rate increases of up to 39%.

WellPoint Executive Vice President Brad Fluegel said the company cannot dip into profit from one insurance line to keep another line afloat.

"It's not sustainable to have our premiums be insufficient to pay our claims expenses," he said. "To have [profit] be applied to premiums, you would be under-pricing your product and essentially losing money. In order to have a sustainable and viable business, you have to have your premiums reflect your underlying medical costs."

But some lawmakers say they are aghast. Former California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, now a Democratic congressman from Walnut Creek, said it was unconscionable for Anthem to impose steep premium hikes on individuals when the company as a whole was quite profitable.

"The extraordinary greed of Anthem/WellPoint Blue Cross is a clear indication that this company has put profit before people," said Garamendi, who as California insurance commissioner presided over the merger. "People need to be able to get out of the shark pool with a public-option lifeboat."

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) said it looked like Anthem and WellPoint were "playing a shell game" to boost their profits and justify rate hikes.

"They are moving all the profits to the holding company," she said. "And then they cry, 'Woe is me. We're not making enough money.' They are just moving the money to hide the jackpot."

Committees of the Legislature and Congress are set to grill Anthem and WellPoint officials this week over the necessity of the rate hikes.

WellPoint has 34-million customers in Blue Cross plans in 14 states, including 8 million in California, and earned $4.7 billion on $60 billion in revenue last year.

"They seem to be quite profitable, and that seems to be their major interest," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), who chairs the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

WellPoint Chief Executive Angela Braly is set to appear Wednesday before a subcommittee of the panel Waxman chairs. The company needs to prove that the additional premium revenues, which, in some cases, are set to increase at a far larger rate than average medical costs, are necessary, Waxman said.

"We've heard that claim," he said. "We want to test that."

The issue of Anthem earnings boosting WellPoint's profit has been an issue since 2004. When WellPoint set its sights on Blue Cross of California, consumer advocates and regulators sought to block the acquisition out of fear that an out-of-state corporate owner would put profit ahead of consumers.

To placate regulators and win approval of the deal, WellPoint agreed to a complicated formula limiting the amount of money that it would siphon from premiums paid by California consumers. Regulators hoped that the limits on profit-taking would ease the upward pressure on premiums.

Those limits expired at the end of 2007. When WellPoint took $1.2 billion in dividends that year, California Department of Managed Health Care chief Cindy Ehnes accused the company of treating the state like "its own ATM machine" at the expense of individuals struggling to afford health insurance.

But neither Ehnes nor the state Department of Insurance has ever found anything wrong with the profits WellPoint collects from Anthem.

But not all the profits went to the corporate parent. Anthem has accumulated more than $1 billion in cash -- in excess of what regulators require the company to reserve to cover outstanding claims, The Times found.

And, between 2005 and 2007, Anthem made annual payments of more than $2 billion a year to affiliated companies for unspecified services, according to an analysis of regulatory filings by Consumer Watchdog. The Santa Monica-based advocacy group has urged regulators to investigate the transfers.

Alyssa Schiffmann, a self-employed bookkeeper, recently got a notice that her Blue Cross coverage is set to increase to $558 a month from $401. Schiffmann, 35, had surgery a few years ago and is convinced she can't go without medical coverage.

"The healthcare companies are making record profits, and it's unsustainable for customers like me," she said. "Our healthcare system puts profits before healthcare, and this needs to change."