The GOA has released a report on the result of the pharmaceutical industry's increase in R&D Spending.
"The results of this analysis indicate that the reported increases in research and development expenditures during the period have not led to a commensurate increase in the innovative potential of NDA (New Drug Applications) submitted to the FDA".
The report also noted that at least 60% of the NDA's submitted to the FDA were for modifications of already approved medications, in other words for things like Ambien CR, Remeron Solutabs and Nexium, which is a metabolite of Prilosec.
The report also is seemingly critical of the companies' "Blockbuster" strategy. The report states that
"companies frequently choose to stop developing drugs that do not offer the same revenue-generating potential as blockbuster drugs, even though they could be highly innovative and offer therapeutic advances."
This is an outrageous abuse of the trust the we have placed in these companies, a trust that has fattened their profitability to the highest in the world.
Suffer from a disease that does not have millions of suffers? Well PhRMA is thumbing their noses at you, too.
"This strategy can also diminish the amount of resources to develop therapies to treat more limited patient populations and less visable diseases."
In discussing the duplication and mee-to-ism that is rampant in the industry
"Some experts and analysts who are critical of the pharmaceutical industry often state that the emphasis on "me too" drugs reduces innovation because such drugs do not offer any significant therapeutic benefits over products already being sold.37 For example, they state that companies have produced different drugs all designed to combat depression or reduce cholesterol, and that such "me too" drugs have similar therapeutic benefits. As a result, these critics assert that this strategy diverts resources from developing drugs that offer greater innovative potential."
This industry is getting rich on the suffering of millions of Americans, while it is failing in its' obligation to turn those high profits into new and innovative therapies for diseases that have been previously been treated poorly or not at all.
The full report is available at http://www.gao.gov/...