Pharma's Queasy Feeling | Arthritis Information

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-peterson27jan27,0,5254811.storyPip,

Here's something:
"For 25 years, the drug industry has imitated the basic business model of Hollywood. Pharmaceutical executives, like movie moguls, have focused on creating blockbusters. They introduce products that they hope will appeal to the masses, and then they promote them like mad. The strategy has created not only Fosamax and Lipitor but Prozac for depression, Nexium for heartburn and Viagra for sex.

Only now is it becoming clear that this business model couldn't work forever. The strategy had a flaw that executives have long ignored: It required extraordinary amounts of promotion at the expense of scientific creativity. To make the strategy work, the drug industry put its marketers in charge; scientists were given a back seat. Is it any wonder that executives at many companies have watched their pipelines of new drugs slow to a trickle?"
More:
"The pharmaceutical companies have become so clever at promotion that even drugs that work little better than a sugar pill have become mega-sellers. Just look at the heavily prescribed class of antidepressants that includes Zoloft and Paxil. Scientists have performed dozens of clinical trials to test these drugs, and in roughly half of them, the sugar tablet worked just as well or better than the drug. We know this because enterprising researchers recently tracked down data the companies decided years ago not to publish and described it in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine."

I'm so scared this happens with drugs that are recommended for my daughter.  Terrified.
Not surprising. I think every industry tries to make a pile of money mostly by sleight of hand. People are starting to get hip to the fact. I'm going to try and stay on simple generics for as much and as long as possible.
Mike
hi guys just wanted to say i am having problems on the cheaper generics
deffinetly not the same as the originalls..

Boney
I haven't read the entire LAT article, but I think a critical issue is the complete, public disclosure of ALL clinical and observational trials.   Last September Congress passed a bill requiring drug makers to post publicly the results of all clinical trials involving approved medicines.  Studies must be submitted to clinicaltrials.gov, a public database operated by the National Library of Medicine.  This bill was in response to controversy about a set of clinical trials kept secret by the industry that revealed that antidepressants increased the risks of suicide in teenagers while doing little to treat their depression.

 

See:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/health/17depress.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

September 2007 NYT article that discusses bill referenced above:

 

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F06EED9143AF933A1575AC0A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

 

 

Joie2008-05-04 16:00:38Boney -
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