The pressure to produce blockbuster drugs
In addition to the pressure to produce blockbuster drugs, these companies are also competing with one another for market share. To heap fuel on the fire, expiring patents means these companies face competition with generic forms of key drugs, so now they are at fever pitch to replace lost revenues.
Then there's their reputation to consider. A tarnished image due to flubs and scandals such as Vioxx and Ketek, which have to be yanked unceremoniously from the market due to risks that outweigh any potential benefits-especially when it comes to light that data is fudged a bit in the rush to get the drug to market. Now the pharmaceutical industry finds itself in a position of not only having to produce the next best thing in drugs, but also win back a skeptical public on the safety of anything they produce.
There was a call to action for damage control recently in the British Medical Journal, in which doctors stated that the pharmaceutical industry, academia and government agencies need to work together to implement systems that would serve to protect the interests of patients. A good place to start would be doing away with conflict of interest on research writings where there is a profit at stake. I expect the day will come when people look back in disgust at the current arrangements, with doctors on drug company payrolls, touting their wares. I talked about this at length in a December House Call. And then, don't forget that when these drug scandals come to light, there's always the cost in human life-that's right, thousands of premature drug deaths just from Vioxx alone, for example-that somehow our society as a whole still seems willing to ultimately accept.
It should be interesting to watch and see what, if any, changes will occur. Especially when there are colossal profits on the line.
