Healthy Skepticism Library item: 3820

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Zieminski N.
Lilly CEO says too much focus on drug side effects
Reuters 2006 Feb 17
http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=2006-02-17T142009Z_01_N16232854_RTRUKOC_0_US-ELILILLY-CEO.xml

Notes:

Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:
‘ The side effects of new drugs are receiving more attention than they deserve, said Eli Lilly & Co. Chief Executive Sidney Taurel…’
“We are trying to move this debate toward some sanity,” Taurel said…

Yes, I’m sure Mr Taurel would be very happy if the adverse (and somtimes serious or even fatal) effects of the drugs he sells were never metioned at all!

Surely this attitude of wanting to hide the truth from the medical profession and the public, is the very problem which has lead to public disquiet and loss of trust in the pharmaceutical industry in the first place.

Full text:

Lilly CEO says too much focus on drug side effects
Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:20 AM ET
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By Nick Zieminski

BOCA RATON, Florida (Reuters) – The side effects of new drugs are receiving more attention than they deserve, said Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive Sidney Taurel on Thursday, unnecessarily delaying the regulatory approval process.

Asked in an interview why regulators have slowed down the approval of new drugs, Taurel told Reuters there was too much emphasis on drugs’ side effects, as opposed to their benefits.

“This is the result of a huge focus that politicians and the media have put on the side effects of drugs,” Taurel said on the sidelines of the Business Council meeting being held here. “This debate is focused only on one side of the equation.”

“We are trying to move this debate toward some sanity,” Taurel said, adding that drug companies are working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to set up a framework for assessing risk that could be based on models in aviation or highway safety.

Separately, Taurel, echoing the findings of a new survey of U.S. corporate leaders, agreed that the soaring cost of health care is the biggest single U.S. policy concern for the coming year and threatens the optimistic mood of American chief executives.

“It’s a real serious concern,” Taurel said. “The health care system in the U.S. suffers from problems of cost, of quality and of access.”

The survey of 82 chief executives by the Business Council and The Conference Board, released earlier on Thursday, said that overall they were quite optimistic about the U.S. and global economies, but that health-care costs were a barrier to hiring and the top policy concern.

“We have to move in the direction of creating better market conditions to improve quality and reduce costs,” Taurel said, adding that the choice was between creating a single-payer system — similar to that in Europe, Canada, or Japan — or a system where patients take on more financial responsibility.

“We need to make the patient a real consumer who can compare quality and price, so the proposal to go in the direction of health savings accounts I think is a very good one.”

Nearly two-thirds of CEOs expect benefit costs to accelerate this year, with 86 percent calling the issue either “very important” or the “most important” challenge facing policy makers, the survey revealed.

The survey, which found that optimism about overall business conditions was growing, called health care costs a “major obstacle” to taking on new workers, with 42 percent of respondents subscribing to that view.

On another subject, Taurel said he favored tort reform to limit the cost of lawsuits, and said more should be done to extend coverage to the uninsured.

“It’s an economic issue,” he said. “We need to find ways to bring these people into the insurance system.”

Taurel also said he believes the Medicare prescription drug benefit, introduced at the start of the year, has been “given a bad rap” by the media.

The system, which in some cases has denied drug refills to patients, is experiencing growing pains that will soon be resolved, he said, adding that the change in Medicare rules has had no effect on Lilly’s sales.

Lilly, which last year repatriated $8 billion in foreign earnings, is investing in research and development, training, and on productivity improvements, the CEO said. As a result, Lilly’s total head count is not growing.