When a drug or medical device becomes available in the marketplace, few if any experts (including doctors) or individual patients question its price. In her article in the NYTimes,
new drugs
Some people believe that the herbs and botanicals they use as supplements are not drugs, but rather, natural substances. Some believe that prescription drugs are merely synthetic chemicals.
Both groups are wrong.
In the no good deed goes unpunished department, California s Gilead Sciences has come under attack by Congressman Henry Waxman a perennial critic of the drug industry. In this case, the issue is the price of Gilead s Sovaldi one of the most revolutionary new drugs to come along in some time.
Prostate cancer (PRCA) is really (at least) two different diseases. The most common form sometimes called the kitty cat form, is by far the most common, and the least harmful. Most men who have this type will eventually die from something other than the cancer.
On the other hand, the aggressive tiger form is much less common, but has a far different outcome.
A the end of every year there is a tally of the number of new drugs that were approved by the FDA during that year. This was recently covered quite thoroughly in a Forbes.com op-ed by Bernard Munos entitled The FDA Approvals of 2012: A Watershed? Munos points out that the number of approvals in 2013 (27) was down sharply from the 37 new drugs that were approved in 2012. While this may be an important number for the pharmaceutical industry, in terms of public health these numbers don t mean all that much.
As of mid-November of this year the FDA had approved 27 new drugs. Seven more are expected to receive approval by the end of 2013. Assuming this is correct, the total will fall short of the 41 approvals in 2012. But the trend of what is being marketed and the pricing of the products continues.