There seems to be new drugs nowadays days to treat nearly everything under the sun, but are these drugs as effective as the drug companies claim? In a study recently published in the British Medical Journal, researchers found that the answer to this question is “no.” The researchers also found that procedures, norms, and policies for global drug development are flawed and need to be fixed.
In a previous study published in the British Medical Journal, scientists reviewed cancer drugs that were approved between 2009 and 2013. They found no clear evidence that most new cancer drugs extended or improved life.
More than half of the new medicines entering the healthcare system had no added advantage, according to the research conducted at the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care. Researchers reviewed 216 drugs that received regulatory permission and entered the market between 2011 and 2017. Only a quarter of those medicines showed any important added advantage. Moreover, 16% showed only a small added advantage, and a whopping 58% of the medicines studied showed no added advantage over previous drugs.
As stated by the research team, “As a consequence, patients’ ability to make informed treatment decisions consonant with their preferences might be compromised, and any healthcare system hoping to call itself ‘patient-centered’ is falling short of its ethical obligations.”
The researchers recommend a much more stringent method of drug approval that requires greater proof from long-term research on large, randomized control groups. Even after approval of a medication, ongoing studies should be done to fill any data gaps.
