A bad week for drug companies?

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7416.0-g

BMJ 2003;327 (20 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7416.0-g

Editor's choice

A bad week for drug companies?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The United States is hugely important for drug companies. Thepharmaceutical market is worth more than $150bn, and annualspending has been rising by almost 20% a year (p 642). Pricesare not regulated in the way they are in many other countries,and companies are allowed to advertise directly to consumers—soboosting consumption. But now the cost of drugs has become animportant political issue, and a bill has been introduced intoCongress that would require government agencies to gather evidence"comparing effectiveness [and] cost effectiveness" of the mostcommonly prescribed drugs "relative to other drugs or treatmentsfor the same disease."

The bill aims to reduce costs, but it could also improve quality.The proposal is to conduct many more head to head trials ofcommon treatments—trials like the ALLHAT (antihypertensiveand lipid lowering to prevent heart attack trial), which showedthat diuretics are just as . . . [Full text of this article]

Richard Smith, editor

(rsmith@bmj.com)

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