First off, allowing any industry to police and test itself is a poorly thought out practice. Unfortunately, it isn't a recent change. I blame both Democrats and Republicans for this oversight. Perhaps all those campaign contributions bought leniency, maybe not. Add to the ever-growing file of FDA corruption.
Testing a new drug against a placebo is mostly going to give positive results. The true test would be to compare new drugs against placebos, and against pre-exisiting drugs.
Chicago Tribune | New schizophrenia drugs test no better than the old
For more than a decade, the federal Food and Drug Administration has relied on drug firms to test their own drugs. Typically, a company compares a new drug with a dummy pill to see if the new compound is more effective than an inert substance. Ninety percent of new drug studies are conducted by the pharmaceutical industry. But a growing number of medical experts say the way drug companies test new drugs is inadequate and self-serving. What are needed, they contend, are more studies like the one conducted by the institute that compare new drugs head to head with existing medications for the same disorder. “These kinds of data are most important because they give doctors information that they didn't have before that help them to make the choices about what drug should be used in any given patient,” said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the institute. The problem with studies conducted by pharmaceutical companies, Insel said, is that they are short-term and involve a relatively small number of the healthiest patients.
And the reason pharmaceutical companies can't do these sorts of test? They are near destitute. Oddly, this isn't what they claim in their quarterly financial reports to analysts.
Alan Goldhammer, associate vice president for regulatory affairs for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the National Institutes of Health are in the best position to conduct large studies comparing drugs.Pharmaceutical companies have limited resources and to undertake this kind of study would mean diverting funds devoted to discovering new drugs, he said.
Right, perhaps a percentage of Big Pharma's profits should be earmarked for proper studies since they are unwilling to conduct the testing themselves?
Tags: corruption, /Politics
