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Health & Fitness

NEW IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER

Despite the more than $50 billion that U.S. pharmaceutical companies have spent every year since the mid-2000s to discover new medications, drugmakers have barely improved on old standbys developed decades ago. Research published on Monday showed that the effectiveness of new drugs, as measured by comparing the response of patients on those treatments to those taking a placebo, has plummeted since the 1970s. Fears of a crisis in drug innovation have grown over the years. When the healthcare journal Prescrire in 2011 ranked new drugs, only 17 of the 984 developed since 2001 were deemed "a real advance" or better. To be sure, drugs that completely change outcomes for patients continue to emerge. Gleevec, from Novartis, greatly extends life for leukemia patients, for instance. New antivirals such as Incivek from Vertex Pharmaceuticals have doubled the cure rate in hepatitis C, and Eylea from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is better than anything previously developed for macular degeneration. Critics of the high prices of drugs that are only marginally (if at all) more effective than older, cheaper, often generic medications hope that head-to-head studies will persuade more physicians to stop prescribing expensive but less effective drugs. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 - "Obamacare" - established the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to conduct such comparative effectiveness research. Always ask your Pharmacist what they think of a new or expensive drug.Many times a less costly drug which has a good safe track record may be available For Additional information contact us at PROFESSIONAL PHARMACY Tully Health Center 32 Strawberry Hill Court Stamford,CT 06902 203-323-9988

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