The process of inventing, developing and testing new pharmaceuticals.
Questions tagged [drug-development]
11 questions
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Is drug development far cheaper than Big Pharma wants us to believe?
In an article titled "The Make-Believe Billion - How drug companies exaggerate research costs to justify absurd profits" in Slate the author writes about a new study about the costs of drug development.
The common cost for the development of a new…
Mad Scientist
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Do typical modern pharmaceutical firms spend more on marketing than on R&D?
Developing new drugs is an expensive process. As a result the pharmaceutical industry spends a lot on R&D (15% of turnover is not unusual and is higher than most other major industries: see report from the EFPIA). But the industries critics point…
matt_black
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Do pricey medicines in the USA subsidise R&D for the rest of the world?
A recent (February 2018) report by the US government Council of Economic Advisors makes the following argument (my highlights):
The United States both conducts and finances much of the biopharmaceutical innovation that the world depends on,…
matt_black
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Have any "cures" been invented since the 1950's or so?
A well reputed professor of neurology once mentioned to me that no drugs have been invented to cure human afflictions since the 1950's or 60's. Are there any drugs that have been invented since that time that are permanent cures of human…
Brian M. Hunt
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Does approving a new generic drug often cost $20 million?
Walter Olson of OverLawyered writes in Yes, that $750 generic pill is a pure artifact of regulation:
if another company wanted to compete to sell the same medicine [Daraprim], it would need to apply for a new generic drug approval, by submitting an…
Christian
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Do 90% of new drugs not improve over previous drugs?
An article in the german online newspaper Spiegel Online starts with the headline
90 Prozent aller neuen Medikamente taugen nichts (90 percent of new drugs are no good)
The article is a about a new report from the government-run insurance TK, the…
Mad Scientist
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Has the primary benefit of statins in reducing early deaths never been fully tested in comparative trials?
Ben Goldacre, in his sustained critique of the way the pharmaceutical industry and its regulators fall far from the standards of reliable evidence (Bad Pharma), makes an astounding claim (p193 of the paperback, my emphasis):
Trials have been done…
matt_black
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Was heroin originally developed as a cure for morphine addiction?
The video What Does Heroin Do To Your Body? claims that heroin was originally developed by the Bayer pharmaceutical company as a treatment for tuberculosis and morphine addiction. Is this true?
Neil Meyer
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Do US Pharma firms have an incentive to develop useless cancer drugs?
An economic analysis of cancer drug approvals in the USA was recently published.
Drug regulators’ acceptance of any statistically significant improvement shown in a single randomized trial and lofty drug prices has created a situation where it is…
matt_black
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Are there approved drugs where it's unknown how they work?
A couple of months ago, I saw a YouTube video, stating that it is still not known how some common drugs really work. I think it might be Healthcare Triage, and I think it might be about antidepressants/SSRIs, but I can't find the video now.
Is is…
stuXnet
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Is Amovir an effective anti-viral drug?
According to this article (in French) on the (usually respectable) website, Capital, Robert Vachy discovered an drug named Amovir which destroys viral envelopes. According to the article, the anti-viral drug was tested at the Pasteur Institute back…
ChrisR
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