Menstuff® has compiled the following information on what drug companies really do with the money.
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Lawsuit: Cancer Drug Maker Illegally Kept
Cheaper Generic Off Market
Pharmaceutical Companies Opt for Copy-Cat Drugs
Instead of Researching for New and Better Solutions
Lawsuit: Cancer Drug Maker Illegally Kept
Cheaper Generic Off Market
Pharmaceutical Companies Opt for Copy-Cat
Drugs Instead of Researching for New and Better Solutions
The report was based on U.S. Food and Drug Administration statistics on new drug application approvals and its classification system, which separates drugs into five categories according to degree of innovation.
From 1989 to 2000, 1,035 drugs were approved by the FDA. Of those, only 35% were classified as a "new molecular entity," or a drug that contains a new active ingredient. And only 15% were drugs that both used new active ingredients and offered significant benefits over existing drugs. These drugs included Lipitor, Viagra, and Fosamax.
More than two-thirds of the drugs approved by the FDA contained active ingredients that were already available in existing products. Most of the drugs were recast with minor improvements in dosing form, how the drugs are administered. Some drugs had merely combined existing active ingredients.
Eleven percent of the approved drugs were identical to products already available on the market.
The report is available from the NICHM Web site at www.nihcm.org
For a JNCI News article on the FDA’s drug approval process, see "Changes at FDA May Speed Drug Approval Process and Increase Off-Label Use".
For more information about drug approval, visit the FDA’s
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at www.fda.gov/cder/
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