Wasn't there a new law passed to address the long term aspects of drug safety. Didn't we recent read about the perils of drug companies encouraging off label uses of drugs for a variety of uses? With a fine of over half a TRILLION (with a T) dollars? Yet here we have a psychiatrist claiming that not only does this not really happen, but that we need more of it. Sounds like a marketing drone to me.
Overly restrictive intellectual property laws devalue the "repurposing" of existing medications for new uses, slowing their availability as life-saving treatments, a Portland researcher contends.
S. Paul Berger, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience in the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, writes in a letter appearing in the current issue of the journal Nature that "economics and patent laws" keep pharmaceutical companies from finding new uses for old drugs.
Instead, drug companies "reinvent the wheel" by spending millions of dollars to develop new drugs for diseases that existing drugs have already been shown to be effective against in off-label uses, Berger believes. As a result, new drugs take years to reach consumers who need them as they undergo lengthy testing in clinical trials required by the Food and Drug Administration, and the development costs are passed on to consumers.
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