Demolished- the myth that allows drug maker giants to sell more

[better2know]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=471131

...it has been an open secret within the drugs industry that most drugs do not work for most patients, a secret that has now been publicly aired for the first time by Allen Roses, the head of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline, Britain's biggest drugs company.

It found that drugs vary enormously in terms of how well they work, with efficacy rates varying from as low as 25 per cent for cancer drugs to 80 per cent for painkillers.

For many drugs, however, the efficacy rates hover around 50 per cent or lower, meaning that, for most people, these drugs just don't work. As Dr Roses puts it: "The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people."

"Roses is a smart guy and what he is saying will surprise the public but not his colleagues," said one industry scientist. "He is a pioneer of a new culture within the drugs business based on using genes to test for who can benefit from a particular drug."

see also:
Glaxo chief: Our drugs do not work on most patients

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=471139

Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them.

Drugs for Alzheimer's disease work in fewer than one in three patients, whereas those for cancer are only effective in a quarter of patients. Drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work in about half the patients, Dr Roses said. Most drugs work in fewer than one in two patients mainly because the recipients carry genes that interfere in some way with the medicine, he said.

"The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people," Dr Roses said. "I wouldn't say that most drugs don't work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don't work in everybody."

[thebigidea]

1. as an aside, isn't GlaxoSmithKline a damned evil sounding name?

[FlaGranny]

8. They used to be Smith, Kline & French.

[xchrom]

2. if you are somone who takes

a lot of drugs -- you know that already.
you always at the dr.s talking about how well xyz is working and well it isn't.
too bad honesty isn't one of the hall marks of the pharmecutecals

[Knoxville_Bob]

3. Just like the high priced blood pressure meds

Turns out that simple waterpills that require an RX work just as well. The price difference - well, the blood pressure RXs will run a couple dollars AWP, and the waterpills are no more than a few cents AWP.

Then you have situations where the drugs do work, but they are very expensive. Most expensive I've ever seen was a usual and customary (meaning the cost typically charged by a pharmacy when you have no benefits) of $650,000 for a 28 day supply. It carried an approved cost (the contracted cost between the benefits company and the pharmacy) of $375,000 for the 28 day supply. The patient's cost? $30 for the 28 day supply. And he was filling this RX every month. The medication - a clotting factor for hemophilia.

[izzie]

4. There has been some good books out on this.

The one drug needed to keep you a live is for diabetes the rest is usually a life style thing or they can not say it saves your life.Some drugs alone will list it is good for over 40 or so things.Silly to think a drug can cure 40 different things. One well known drug was talked up as a geart cure yet prosebos(sp) had the same results but I am willing to bet everyone knows some one on this drug.People must be better informed on these new drugs. Their are a lot of drug conpanies that are just feeding these drugs to doctors to give to people. Another thing people must learn you can not keep doing something and think the drug will cure it, which I see all the time.If you take a pill to bring down blood pressure and other things and pour on the salt, eat anything you wish these pills will not cure your problem. We do all also grow old and start to wear out. Do I take pills well my doctor wanted me to and I had a long talk to him on this and we guessed we would wait. It would have been well over $30 a month as far as I could find out. Drug store just would not tell me the coat unless I bought it. Do you understand that? It would be over $30 they said. Does that mean $40 or $140?Since then test have shown the gov is not to happy with this drug.

[Military Brat]

5. GSK is the company "punishing" Canada for lower drug prices

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/01/21/canadian.drug.sales/index.html
From this article: "Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline decided Tuesday to stop selling prescription drugs to Canadian wholesalers and pharmacies that export medicines to the United States."

I'm wondering if Dr. Roses has an ax to grind with GSK. More power to him, it's about time someone like him spoke up about this farce of drug efficacy. What will the head of the FDA say about this? Who knows. Mark McClellan (FDA head) is the brother of Scott McClellan, bush's mouthpiece.

[Knoxville_Bob]

6. Check out Brazil

They're getting ready to (if they haven't already) break patents on three AIDS drugs if the manufacturers fail to bring the prices down to what Brazil considers "acceptable" prices.

http://www.fdanews.com/pub/did/2_175/international/

http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?story=35500062

http://www.globaltreatmentaccess.org/content/press_releases/a01/051801_ECON_BRA_WHA.html

[reprobate]

7. Not only are they inneffective, they're just plain dangerous.

The gov'ts own figures show that five times more people die from adverse reactions to prescription drugs than from all the illegal drugs in the world. That's the gov'ts own figures quoted last year in Consumer Reports.

What else do they lie to us about? But that's all right. Every lie that the people know about brings the revolution that much closer. I said it before and I'll say it again. Capitalism is a self defeating system. It depends on inequality. For every one that wins under capitalism there must be several that lose. It really is a zero sum game that must be good for the winners and death for the losers.

[enki23]

9. therefore, you should not take any drugs. only herbs.

and magnets.

this guy isn't saying "don't take drugs." he's saying we should be genetically tested to find out which drugs work best for each of us.

he's right.

[Sven77]

10. side effects

if the drugs dont work your just getting the side-effects