What You Need to Know About Prescription Drugs: Five Questions Answered
Oct. 18, 2006 — -- Americans use 71 percent more prescription medicine than they did in the early 1990s.
Now more than ever, perhaps, more questions need to be asked about the prescription drugs that are an integral part of our lives and our health care.
ABC News posed five questions about prescription drugs to Dr. Sharon Levine of the Permanente Medical Group, the medical arm of Kaiser Permanente health plan:
1) Most of us believe new drugs are better than old drugs. Is this true?
Not necessarily. Many new drugs are simply minor modifications of existing drugs, with essentially comparable heath effects, or drugs with a new mechanism of action but not necessarily an improved health benefit. For the [Food and Drug Administration] to approve a "new drug," the manufacturer only has to demonstrate that it is "better than nothing," i.e., a "placebo." It is a good idea to ask the question about all new drugs, "Is this really likely to be a better, improved drug, or is it just 'new,' and what is the evidence?"
2) When a health plan like Kaiser has "preferred drugs," are they just being cheap and denying patients the latest and greatest medicines?
For a drug to make a "preferred drug list," it has to meet safety and quality standards before it is even considered. "Value" -- is there an equally effective, equally safe drug, which would be less expensive to achieve the same health outcome -- is not considered unless there are other safe, quality drugs to choose from for the condition being treated. "Preferred drugs" are those, which are either the best (sometimes only) available therapy, or the most cost effective choice in a category of drug where there are multiple options for treatment. It's not about denying access to a better, more effective therapy, but rather being sure that consumers are getting the most health value from their prescription drugs.
3) What are the lessons from a drug like Vioxx?
That "new" is not the same as "improved." That confirmatory safety data may take longer to accumulate than the FDA approval process, and careful postmarketing surveillance of new drugs is as important as the prerelease FDA approval. That physicians need better information about safety "concerns," which may or may not be ultimately proven to be risks, as they look at the appropriate use of a new drug. That manufacturers need to be more forthcoming about safety concerns and that "direct to consumer" marketing, and "direct to physician" drug promotion by industry of a new drug can lead to rapid use and uptake of the drug even without solid evidence that the drug is better or safer than existing alternatives.
