Pharmaceuticals have been a core of the dramatic medical advances available to patients in the past decade. In particular, cancer chemotherapies, drugs to control symptoms of chemotherapy, cardiac agents, diabetes medications, and amazing new anti-inflammatory immunosuppressant drugs for rheumatologic diseases are but a few examples of enormous advances in pharmaceuticals.
But there is trouble for all of us in the pharmaceutical industry, and its regulation. Several recent examples raise issues with the pharmaceutical firms and their addiction to greed. It's been a long-standing truth that the pharmaceutical industry spends more on marketing than it does on research and development. So when an industry that has profit margins rivaling and exceeding the oil industry justifies its profits on the basis of the quality of the products it is producing, I wince. Between direct to consumer advertising, and the incredible attention the pharmaceutical industry pays to physicians, they are wasting dollars that could be spent on more research, or less costly drugs.
And now we have some very troubling news. The Washington Post article Maker of Vioxx Is Accused of Deception cites the journal of the American Medical Associaton indicating that pharmaceutical firms write their papers for publication before finding an author!
And the FDA is overwhelmed and incapable of effectively reviewing the science brought to them says this Federal Times article. And the NY Times reports that the FDA is under fire for a new plan to relax rules on drug promotion. For physicians and consumers, these trends should prompt demands for reform. Pharmaceutical agents are very important to all of us. However, they should be introduced after effective review of the science, and when risks have been adequately evaluated, and at lower cost.
And how addicted to greed can a pharmaceutical firm be? To actually write a paper regarding their research and then seek an author who is willing to attach their name to something written by others with a self-serving agenda is incredible.
I am no fan of excessive regulation. The healthcare industry is already the most regulated industry on the planet. But these egregious behaviors will cause a response. Those of us who occupy board rooms must constantly remember who we are serving. I am glad that the board rooms I sit in seek to manage most effectively a nonprofit community resource-a community hospital. The board rooms of the pharmaceutical firms need to remember that they serve the same ultimate goal-patients with illnesses. How they do so while satisfying their shareholders, is an agenda that needs better thought than is currently being applied.