Healthy Skepticism Library item: 6270

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: Journal Article

Ridley DB, Kramer JM, Tilson HH, Grabowski HG, Schulman KA.
Spending on postapproval drug safety.
Health Aff (Millwood) 2006 Mar-Apr 01; 25:(2):429-36
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/25/2/429

Abstract:

Withdrawals of high-profile pharmaceuticals have focused attention on post-approval safety surveillance. There have been no systematic assessments of spending on postapproval safety. We surveyed drug manufacturers regarding safety efforts. Mean spending on postapproval safety per company in 2003 was 56 million dollars (0.3 percent of sales). Assuming a constant safety-to-sales ratio, we estimated that total spending on postapproval safety by the top twenty drug manufacturers was 800 million dollars in 2003. We also examined, using regression analysis, the relationship between the number of safety personnel and the number of initial adverse-event reports. This study offers information for the debate on proposed changes to safety surveillance.

Keywords:
Costs and Cost Analysis Drug Approval/economics* Drug Industry/economics* Humans Product Surveillance, Postmarketing/economics* Regression Analysis Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. Safety United States