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Now the federal government is hoping to settle the dispute by funding a head-to-head comparison of the two biotechnology drugs, the first such trial by the National Institutes of Health. If Avastin works as well as Lucentis, the government's Medicare program for the elderly could save $1 billion or more a year, officials say.
The mutiny by doctors nationwide against a high-priced drug -- and Washington's willingness to go to bat for them -- is triggering alarms in the drug industry. "Industry doesn't want an equivalency trial where there could be decisions on coverage. They are terrified," says William L. Rich, director of health policy at the American Academy of Ophthalmology, which backs the NIH trial.
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Genentech has refused to provide any funding or drugs for the NIH trial, scheduled to start in April.
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5 comments:
Is all new drug development in the US done by private drug companies? If so maybe we should also have a government-funded program for development of new drugs - without the profit motive.
S. A.
Unfortunately, the anonymous socialist who commented above has little understanding of why the US leads the world in R and D and why the complexities of genentech's current situation are so interesting and problematic.
Without a profit motive, the vast majority of breakthroughs would not happen. Conversely, because of the profit motive, we don't have great treatment for the common diseases of developing countries (since there is no money in it)
The current system is not without flaws, but to suggest that the pharm industry should be without profit motive and under government auspices is simply wrong.
On the other hand, there is a great deal of basic science research that occurs at tax payer funded universities, in which profit motive is not the driving force. Publications and associated prestige are prime motivators.
There has been a great deal of public discussion on how big pharma benefits from much of this research, without having to pay for it!
I'm not suggesting that the pharm industry be controlled by the government, only that a parallel government-funded system be put in place. Apparently this Avastin-Lucentis trial will be the first NIH-sponsored drug trial - that surprises me.
S. A.
For better or worse, private US drug companies run most things in the medical/pharmaceutical world.
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