Marilynn Marchione from the Associated Press asked a good question in her article today:
How does a drug go from blockbuster to bust?
How can big safety issues go undetected in medicines taken by millions of people for many years, as happened this week with the diabetes pill Avandia and a few years ago with the painkiller Vioxx?
Here’s a three-letter hint: the FDA. As long as the FDA has a vested financial interest in helping drug companies bring product to market, we will see these scenarios for years to come.
Isn’t it ironic that the FDA won’t allow the importation of drugs from Canadian pharmacies due to “safety reasons,” but will allow a drug to stay on the market that increases a patient’s risk of heart attack by 43 percent?
The simple answer to Marilynn’s question is this: FOLLOW THE MONEY.
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[...] FDA confirms safety risk of Avandia Although we already know why Avandia is still on the market, the FDA released its preliminary results of its evaluation of the GlaxoSmithKline PLC drug. Here are the results via the Washington Post: The government’s own preliminary evaluation of the diabetes pill Avandia confirms the heart risks reported in a study earlier this week and suggests that as many as 60,000 to 100,000 heart attacks might be linked to its use since it came on the market eight years ago, a leading member of Congress said Thursday. [...]
Agree with your conclusion. Safety is not an immediate concern with big pharma. Profit is.