What explains such rapid rises in prices? For one thing, the role played by patents and FDA approvals in drug discovery and sales. There's currently a backlog of roughly 4,000 generic drugs awaiting the agency's approval. Both are factors in how rare and common drugs, such as EpiPens, can shoot up in price so dramatically.
Drugs & Pharmaceuticals
While not formally approved by the FDA, the concept is simple: Replenish the good bacteria and control the disease-causing bacteria.
There's never been a therapeutic vaccine for any infectious disease, and there isn't one on the horizon. But there are plenty of drugs that work quite well for infections: antibiotics, antifungals and antivirals.
As a closer look at this study reveals, it's important to note an essential distinction between implying that this behavior is an addiction – which it isn't necessarily – as opposed to saying medication is being used "beyond the normal recovery period."
Drug co-payments are meant to share costs. But for many drugs, they cover not just the entire cost but a "little something" for pharmacy benefits managers, who structure the deals.
There's more unwelcome news for sufferers of genital herpes. Less than a year after Genocea's experimental herpes vaccine went down in flames, Vical's VCL-HB01 met the same fate: no efficacy in Phase II trials. And worse, there's nothing obvious on the horizon that can fill the void.
The FDA used Tipping Point Analysis to show that an important study of cholesterol-lowering medications is incorrect. So who got it wrong? The FDA or the New England Journal of Medicine, which peer-reviewed the work?
Synthetic cannabinoids are sometimes mixed with rat poison, which causes uncontrollable bleeding. So, as it turns out, the neighborhood drug dealer might not be a completely trustworthy individual.
Using data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Canadian researchers focusing on adult deaths for those aged 24 to 35 found that in 2016, the last year studied, 20 percent of all fatalities in this age group were opioid related. In 2001, the figure was just 4 percent.
The ubiquitous, on-screen advertising about prescription drugs is highly structured by the FDA. That helps explain why the voice-over's claims and cautions are delivered so quickly at the end of the commercial.
Patients, now plaintiffs, are contending that eye drop manufacturers deliberately make eye drops too large, resulting in expensive, wasted drugs running down their cheeks. Four of these suits have been dismissed, but there's one that is moving forward in the courts.
Dupixent, a drug that already works miracles for people with eczema, has been found to be very effective for treatment of severe asthma. Nothing else does this. Keep this in mind the next time you think that the pharmaceutical industry is not innovative.