Posts by Onco guy 3 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Mar 2015
Honestly, 5 more drugs tested is irrelevant to given the number of compounds in clinical testing in Oncology (over 100 times that).
I think the better thingreen any National Government should do with money for Healthcare is bargaining to get the most services/drugs per USD spent. Basic research is a different thing, tough.
Sorry again, but I do not share your respect for Cochrane review: I can only speak for the field I master real well (anti-thrombotic treatment), and the Cochrane document for that field is just a cookiecutter affair. What normal users (e.g. practising medics) should expect is that a review document spots flaws in the knowledge base so that a non-expert can understand the relative value of existing evidence. The specific review I can evaluate completely fails to realize where the evidence is weak due to design issues. I really think that after reading it a non-expert will get a false assurance in the quality of data, so it's worse than not having a review.
There is a kind of hippie feeling that only those who are free of the slightest contamination by any contact with Pharma can be our guides in the quest of drug usage advice. One of the big problems of that is you are leaving out of your expert team anyone who has broad and deep knowledge of a field (most likely if you areceiving a real expert at least Pharma has asked your advice or invited you to participate in discussions research, etc.)
Guys, sorry but the article is a misrepresentation of truth and this is a field where common sense is simply not good enough.
To release a medicine for use you must have solid data backing it's efficacy and safety in the disease you want to treat. Anecdotal and series review data is not good enough: MANY promising drugs have failed to show real value when put to the final clinical tests. You can argue a lot (I do), on specific issues of the regulatory system, but thinking that something with the level of evidence supporting cimetidine in cancer is more than a possibility requiring clinical testing is not true. And the cost of testing the effect of such a drug is the hundred of USD millions range (think how you would act if each time you roll the dice the bet is a few hundred USD million and your chances of success are at best 1 in 3, maybe lower).
Many companies are in the business of looking to repurpose drugs (it is much cheaper than start from 0 and you do get patents on them if you do it right), and usually their return on investment is better than to that of big pharma. If they are not interested in a drug you should think twice before believing they are stupid and you are wise (it might be the case but do not bet your house -or worse your pension -on it)
There might be a theoretical case for government to invest in developing old drugs in new indications, but before you do ask for that think twice: government is usually awful in allocating funding and the current track record of fully government funded research producing useful cancer drugs is close to nil world wide.
You may hate them, but Pharma guys know how to make sure money is spent carefully (at least much better than government)
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