Richard Sarwal Returns to Oracle

After only nine months on the job, VMware's head of research and development is packing his bags and returning to Oracle.

Richard Sarwal resigned his post effective immediately in order to
resume his life at Oracle, where he spent almost two decades. Sarwal
was plucked from the database outfit by VMWare's former-CEO, Diane
Greene, in December 2007. from the Register

Why don't drug ads work? Or do they?

excerpt of article by Keith J. Winstein and Suzanne Vranica

(Companies Featured in Article: Amgen, Schering Plough, Novartis)

Consumer advertising for prescription drugs had a negligible impact on sales of products studied by Harvard Medical School researchers -- in a finding that may confound both advertisers and their opponents.

The study may undercut the arguments of opponents of such ads, which have been allowed almost nowhere outside the U.S. Critics say they lead to drug overuse and misuse by impressionable patients pressing their doctors to prescribe what is seen on TV.

But the study also raises the question of whether the pharmaceutical industry's $4.8 billion annual spending on such ads is a waste of shareholders' money. from WSJ U.S. Drug Ads Questioned