New study: 85% of Big Pharma’s new drugs are “lemons” and pose health risks to users

JBeukema

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Apr 23, 2009
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Independent reviewers found that about 85 percent of new drugs offer few if any new benefits -- but they carry the risk of causing serious harm to users.

According to Donald Light, Ph.D., a professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey who authored the study, the pharmaceutical industry is a "market for lemons" and Big Pharma spends a fortune to sell those lemons to the public.

"Sometimes drug companies hide or downplay information about serious side effects of new drugs and overstate the drugs' benefits," Dr. Light, who presented his findings on August 17 in Atlanta at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, said in a press statement. "Then, they spend two to three times more on marketing than on research to persuade doctors to prescribe these new drugs. Doctors may get misleading information and then misinform patients about the risks of a new drug. It's really a two-tier market for lemons."

New study: 85% of Big Pharma's new drugs are "lemons" and pose health risks to users
 

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