The incidence of West Nile virus has remained the same for the past four years, and Petersen says he doesn't expect this year to be any different.

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"Medication costs have gone up, but overall they haven't gone up significantly, " said Matt Petersen, the American Diabetes Association's managing director of medical information and professional engagement.

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While the data for the tau drugs "aren't definitive at this point, " says the Mayo Clinic's Ronald Petersen, they do provide researchers enough of a signal to continue forward in larger trials that may provide more definitive results.

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"I couldn't do two blocks before and now I can do five miles, " Mr. Petersen says.

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"There are those of us who genuinely love these things and see something in them that a lot of people don't see, but it doesn't really convert to a commercial reality, " says Donald Kelly, the former executive director of the Rothschild Petersen Patent Model Museum, who now runs Intellectual Asset Management Associates, a Washington, D.

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