What did we learn?
That a drug can be marketed to physicians in such a way that they will
prescribe
this for patients at 10 times the cost of over the counter anti-
inflammatories
when it was never demonstrated to be better or safer in terms of real
clinical
outcomes. I suppose that we can blame Merck and the FDA for promoting and
approving the use of Vioxx but they were not responsible for choosing to
prescribe Vioxx over many cheaper products. Who wrote the
prescriptions...and
why? That's what we should seek to learn: the factors that result in
irrational
prescribing.
Rapid Response:
Re: On Selective Learning
What did we learn?
That a drug can be marketed to physicians in such a way that they will
prescribe
this for patients at 10 times the cost of over the counter anti-
inflammatories
when it was never demonstrated to be better or safer in terms of real
clinical
outcomes. I suppose that we can blame Merck and the FDA for promoting and
approving the use of Vioxx but they were not responsible for choosing to
prescribe Vioxx over many cheaper products. Who wrote the
prescriptions...and
why? That's what we should seek to learn: the factors that result in
irrational
prescribing.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests