Pill

High cost of prescription drugs = bad pill to swallow. EDWARD H. ROMAN Victorville

Robert B. Greenblatt, a retired professor at the Medical College of Georgia and an internationally known endocrinologist who did pioneering work in oral contraception, died Sunday at his residence here. He was 80. Greenblatt, who came to the college 52 years ago as a research fellow, had received international recognition for pioneering work in the sequential oral contraceptive pill and the oral fertility pill.

The table on executive compensation was quite illuminating. The high compensation in salaries and "stock awards" for executives in companies in "the health field" has solved a puzzle for me. Now I know why antibiotics cost $1.50 per pill, and a weekly cancer chemotherapy injection runs $400 per shot. WILFRED COUZIN Laguna Niguel

Re "Not Exactly a Quiet Zone" (March 8): I have the ultimate example of the madness that goes on. I was actually awakened by a nurse to give me ... a sleeping pill. Deborah Lopez Agoura Hills

I sat across the table from Chuck, marveling at his robust good health. We'd just been to see a play — and instead of looking pale and pinched after it ended, he stood up, clapping wildly through the last curtain call. Six months ago, he'd been crossing a road in the crosswalk and was hit by a car, tossed up on the hood and dropped to the asphalt crosswalk below. Chuck is 75 years old. Even before the accident he was in pain from lifelong back problems and several resultant surgeries, tossing pills down and placing a special pillow behind his back when he sat down to watch a play.