September 23rd, 20190783The opioid crisis in the USA has entered the next phase. Purdue Pharmaceuticals, which manufactured OxyContin is looking towards Chapter 11 bankruptcy. An Oklahoma court found Johnson and Johnson had intentionally played down the dangers and oversold the benefits of opioid medications.
The issues with opioids are now well known....
August 26th, 20190731Much is made of the evidence base of modern medicine. It is certainly the case that many trials are done and that to bring a pharmaceutical to market requires trial evidence to show that the drug is better than placebo and that side effects are acceptable.
There is one catch in all of this. Who determines the quality or lack thereof,...
September 25th, 201701281If you make the same prediction often enough in a recurring event, there is a likelihood that one time you will be right. This is not a reflection on cleverness. Each year we get a prediction that the upcoming flu season will be terrible, possibly the worst ever. Most years are much like the one before albeit some years there are more...
August 28th, 20170972Some 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 pressure came in at over $60 billion and one for heartburn at a...
June 12th, 201701014Every year a number of new drugs come onto the market. Some are greeted with fanfare while others just slide in. There is an assessment process to bring pharmaceuticals to market to show that they are safe, that they work and that side effects are acceptable. To get a listing on the Pharmaceutical benefits scheme (PBS) and thus attract a...
October 24th, 201611477There was an interesting review published in The Lancet about the placebo rate in use of antidepressants. The review found that that the placebo response rate had remained steady over the last 20 years – at around 40%. What was even more interesting was the way this was spun. Australian Doctor reported international experts hailing...
October 3rd, 201601456Conflicting 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 review claiming that the medication is safe, that side effects have...
July 11th, 201601697There are inflection points in history when things change. After this it can be hard to remember why there was a change and what were things like before. I was thinking about this when grappling with the non-stick fry pan, which seems to “stick”.
Some refuse to use these pans citing concerns about the health effects of Teflon and...
May 23rd, 201601292A report from the BMJ recently claimed that medical error or misadventure was the third largest cause of death in the USA. The annual figure, estimated at 251,000, was greater than deaths from respiratory disease, stroke and accidents.
The key word is estimated. Statistics can be used in medicine to create a false impression, usually to...
May 16th, 201621786We live in a time of paradox. In the western world (indeed in almost all countries) life expectancy is increasing. Historically people had to worry about not having enough to eat and having shelter. In western countries, for the vast majority of people these are not day-to-day worries. Even those (not all) with little money have food and...
