Hey kdd, it's been a while.
Little question that we are an over drug using country. But we the newer generations are not tough. They go to doctors for a cold or the flu, a pain in the side that last for a few hours. They stay home from work if they have a headache and pop pills all day. I grew up in a time and place where guys were really tough. I had a guy on the logging crew I was working on get his finger crushed off one day and the Dr. told him to take two weeks off. He was at work the next day. Seldom did any of the guys that worked for me or with me take anywhere near the time off a Doctor suggested because of injury or sickness. Things have changed. So I see the use of drugs declining very little, especially for the sick. The use of preventive drugs could take a hit, and should if there is any serious risk at all.
I agree that the drugs nowadays have too many side effects and too many people still take them if they want relief from pain or fatigue. However, most drugs have side effect on a certain percentage of people using them, even aspirin. Birth control pills have side effects on some women, but I don't expect to see them stop using them.
Some of these drugs had warning signs and they were taken lightly, other side effects simply didn't show up until a lot of time had passed. How can they find what 10 years of using something might cause until 10 years of using it passes.
Rituxan causes about 8 deaths in early trials but they found ways to avoid that and it is now a $1.5 billion product.
What I see happening is the big pharmaceutical companies putting safety above efficacy as that will be the pressure from the public. There will still be diseases like cancers that are needed even if some side effects are found. It comes down to what the patient needs to survive and the quality of life they will have.
The FDA might be harder to work with, but if a product appears to be safe, it will work it's way through the process. Also, the big companies that have drugs now that have serious side effects will probably start shutting them down to some degree, and they will need other products to keep their sales up, that could be good for biotech's that have safe products (so far), or for products that address diseases that are so serious that acceptable side effects are much less an issue. |
