Posted by gibber on March 7, 2006, at 22:54:57
I should say first off that having a variety of different drugs is a good thing. It increases the probability that someone will find the right drug for them. However given the fact that drug companies need to make money and make shareholders happy, it only makes sense that much of their attention rest on their bottom line. To give a concrete example, if only MAOI were available for depression I think most people wouldn't think twice about taking them. For me and many others, the diet restrictions are easy to stick to and not a major life style change. It wouldn't surprise me if drug companies used the "diet restrictions" of MAOIs to market their new SSRIs. I remember a radio show that was mentioning a study on old and new antipsychotics and found little or no difference in efficacy. From my experience it just seems that fear of MAOIs is unjustified. Drug companies are also making a killing off sleep aids too, what are the old ones like? I'm not pointing fingers at drug companies. Capitalism is great because is pumps a lot of money into research, but it can be hard to know the difference between what is good and what is just flashy marketing. afterthought: Generics are a threat to brand name drugs. The voraciousness with which drug companies hold onto their patents is astounding. For them it is cheaper to pay lawyers to hold a case up in court than it is to hand over rights to a generic.
poster:gibber
thread:617313
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060304/msgs/617313.html