Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8607

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

Sotelo J.
Making the prices of new drugs fairer
BMJ 2007 Feb 17; 334:(7589):369
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7589/369

Abstract:

The prices of novel drugs are spiralling, and the rises seem impossible to contain. Drugs are fast becoming unaffordable for many patients and public healthcare institutions, even in rich countries. This is a huge challenge for medical institutions and governments; the problem is so great nowadays that several countries consider it a matter of national security.

Several chronic diseases (among them epilepsy, arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, and depression) require lifelong treatment, an economic burden that many patients find almost impossible to meet. The impressive success of biomedical research in recent decades in curing and controlling countless diseases is increasingly eclipsed by the rising costs of all new treatments, even those for simple or self limiting disorders.

The cost of biomedical research that eventually results in new drugs is almost entirely supported by public institutions without commercial interests. Only the final steps in the design and testing of a new drug rest . . .