BLOGSCAN - "Lessons from Vytorin"

On Gooznews, Merrill Goozner posits the "lessons from Vytorin," principally, that clinical trials should not be run by pharmaceutical companies, but rather by an independent agency, a la the NIH.

A generation ago, the drug industry accounted for about a third of clinical trials, while academic medical centers, using largely government funds, accounted for two-thirds of the tests. Today, that ratio is reversed. One estimate I’ve seen suggested industry spends over $20 billion a year on clinical trials, well over half of its collective research and development budget.

The time has come to ask whether our privatized system of clinical trial research is serving the nation’s health. The fact that a drug like Zetia can be approved and sold to millions of people for nearly a decade without any evidence that it actually saves lives is absurd.