E-drug: Essential drugs etc.
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Dear colleagues,
Politics seem to be whipping up sentiments in Seattle, but let's stay
cool and objective: The majority of "new" drugs developed in the last
twenty years are of the "me-too" variety. Really innovative drugs are
rare, estimates are 4-5 per year, and these are mostly very expensive
compounds which cause small improvements in the framework of
sophisticated treatments outside the scope and possibilities of
developing countries: One cannot use hi-tech cancer drugs or
immunosuppressants if there are no proper isolation facilities. All basic
drugs were discovered before 1970. Of course it has been said that
anti-AIDS drugs are an exception, but again we are speaking about
modest changes, no cure. In some countries I asked regional groups to
draft formularies (or reimbursement lists) and then - within one
country - we looked at the common denominator. It came as no
surprise that this consists for over 95% of drugs on the WHO EDL!
The other drugs more or less belong to the categories of local tradition
or "luxury" as others could practice medicine without them.
By the way - and this might sound naive - has anyone taken the
trouble to properly define "compulsory licensing"? This is to my
opinion confusing political language - what we in Europe call
"Eurospeak".
I am curious what the results of all this will be in 2-3 years' time....
Best wishes,
Dr.L.Offerhaus
Koedijklaan 1a, NL-1406KW Bussum, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-35-6923288. Fax: +31-35-6923290
E-mail: LO@EURONET.NL CompuServe: 71530,15
Eur J Clin Pharmacol ONLY:
POB 75552, NL-1070AN Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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