And people wonder why I’m suspicious about every prescription they hand me:
For years, a trio of anemia drugs known as Epogen, Procrit and Aranesp ranked among the best-selling prescription drugs in the United States, generating more than $8 billion a year for two companies, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson. But a Washington Post investigation shows that the benefits of the drugs — including “life satisfaction and happiness,” according to the FDA-approved label — had to be retracted and that potentially lethal side effects, such as cancer and strokes, were overlooked. Millions of patients were subjected to dangerous doses that might have had little advantage.
The multibillion-dollar rise and fall of the anemia drugs illustrates how the economic incentives embedded in U.S. health care can make the system not only inefficient, but potentially deadly. Through a well-funded research and lobbying campaign, the drugmakers won far-reaching approvals from the FDA. Doses tripled in size. The pharmaceutical companies conducted trials that missed the dangers and touted benefits that years later would be deemed unproven. The companies took more than a decade to fulfill their research commitments. And when bureaucrats tried to rein in the largest doses, a high-powered lobbying effort began until Congress forced the regulators to let the drugs flow.
Trial lawyers get a bad rap. Every time I see one of those drug company ads that tries to bury the “tell your doctor if your anus seizes up” disclaimer, I remember that the FDA “approved” this miracle cure for toe nail yellowing.
Yes, if it is a newer prescription drug or it advertised in the lobby of the doctor’s office, I get pretty nervous. I take some prescription drugs, but, most of them have been on the market around 30 or 40 years.
Now, after reading this I start to question even that.
As we all know that every drug is ‘designed’ (that’s its formulary) in such a way as to help the greatest number of people possible. But we always have to keep in mind that each one of us responds differently to different substances. So if two people take the same medication one person will have great results and the other persons hair might all fall out. It is what it is. Research costs millions of dollars (or so they tell us) so a drug manufacturer is allowed by law to take out a patent allowing only that company to make and sell the drug for 12 years. That’s where the profit comes from. There is a better and less costly system available but not in a Capitalist economy.
Dr Drew and Big Pharma: http://www.alternet.org/story/156277/how_big_pharma_and_dr._drew_made_a_fortune_deceiving_america?page=2