EconTech

Pharmaceutical Facts
Time to develop and market a new drug: 10-15 years
Average Cost to develop a new drug (2006): $1.318 billion
Total R&D spending on drugs in 2007: $58.8 billion

Generic share of market in 2007: 67%
Percent of marketed drugs that cover R&D costs: Only 20%
Total number of drugs approved in 2007: 23
R&D as a percent of [...]

Via the Healthcare Economist, Jason:
Ghostwriting by Pharmaceutical Companies
Academic journals are places where medical practitioners can go to view the latest, most cutting-edge, medical technologies. These journals are peer reviewed and are supposed to be places where rigorous, unbiased research is conducted. Some of these articles may not be as unbiased as once thought.
NPR’s Marketplace reports [...]

As I have noted, I have serious concerns about how medical research is conducted. Now, there is evidence that we should be worrying about the authorship of the articles.
JAMA article on ghostwriting medical studies
The Journal of the American Medical Association published a piece today on ghostwriting of medical research. Thanks to the Vioxx lawsuits, the [...]

IANAL
The NYT is reporting that the preemption legal theory (here, the idea that regulatory approval shields a company from liability) has a rather decent chance of winning in the Ortho Evra case. I have previously discussed the merits (and limits) of such a theory. I am confused as to how anyone can take seriously the [...]

Or so some want it. I don’t disagree that this is a good idea. But, as the article points out, there are more ways to disguise unfavorable results. Let’s hope the regulators can outwit the cheaters in these other instances. Also, note that many problems are discovered using observational data. I resubmit EMR as a [...]

Remember: IANAL
In various policy circles, there is a rather common idea that regulators, after working so long with the regulated, begin to cooperate with them instead of properly regulating them. I think if you look, you will see a lot of this behavior wrt brand name versus generic drug manufacturers and the FDA. Warning, contains [...]

Just a note, I am not a lawyer (IANAL), but I have worked for several years on lawsuits involving pharmaceutical companies, the FDA, the USPTO, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers. Take the comments into account accordingly.
If only our regulatory and publishing systems were so good. I understand the sentiment expressed, and things are moving in the [...]

On 1), I’m not sure that is something we really want to control for. I’m just unsure of how race dynamics vary across country. Even then, sometimes I’m more interested in the population average, rather than the ‘disaggregated’ average. I think this is one of those times. 3) I’m sure this is true. But there [...]