HEALTHAttention turns to drug development processNew incentives are recommended to spur companies to tackle the big health problems facing an aging society.By Susan J. Landers, amednews staff. Nov. 14, 2005. Washington -- The pharmaceutical industry has its problems. Too many new drugs in the development pipeline are copies of existing drugs and the quest for blockbuster drugs is on a collision course with a growing trend toward individualized medicine, which favors drugs that provide targeted help to fewer people. However, even as drug development costs spiral upward and drug safety issues are frequently on the front pages of the nation's newspapers, more and more drugs continue to be consumed and the cost to the nation's health care system continues to mount, said Joseph P. Newhouse, PhD, professor of health policy and management at Harvard University. Dr. Newhouse was moderating an Oct. 24 discussion on pharmaceuticals in the 21st century at the Institute of Medicine's annual meeting. In tackling the problems, several speakers suggested changes in trial design and more attractive incentives to drug development manufacturers. Alastair J.J. Wood, MD, associate dean and professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee, noted that while numerous beta blockers and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesics are available, there are no drugs to prevent Alzheimer's disease or arthritis. Dr. Wood, who has served on Food and Drug Administration advisory committees and was among those considered to head the agency in 2002, proposed a new, incentive-based system for drug approvals. This strategy would allow for surrogate endpoints to demonstrate a drug's effectiveness. He suggested that an endpoint to measure a drug's usefulness on beta-amyloid, for example, might serve as a surrogate endpoint for an Alzheimer's drug. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2005 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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