Some numbers are so big that one can struggle to comprehend them. Fierce Pharma reported that in the decade from 2007, drugs losing their patents had total sales of $US915 billion. Of this over US$200 billion was in sales of statin medications. A tablet for high blood...
It is an interesting contrast that bad news sells in the media but not in medical research. Doom and gloom is more likely to sell papers or get clicks in the media. Yet when it comes to medical stories we are only interested in breakthroughs and miracle cures. Not...
There is an old adage that the more things change the more they stay the same. This had new meaning to me whilst listening to music when a 2015 hit was played. It has a catchy chorus, which gets in your head. “Here’s an invitation to the whole wide world From your...
Three separate articles neatly summed up the issues facing healthcare as the year ends. None are exactly new. All three covered separate aspects of what are the central problems. And that is the medicalization of life with the extension of diagnosis to over diagnosis,...
A recent article in a UK newspaper reported that the National Health Service (NHS) is considering delaying procedures for a particular class of individuals such as the obese and smokers. In the USA, there are rumblings about health care rationing with the Affordable...
Conflicting views have again emerged about statin medications in two leading British Medical Journals. Statins are used to lower cholesterol and have been the best selling drugs of the past 25 years with sales in the tens of billions of dollars. The Lancet published a...
