Some recently launched drugs do indeed fill important, previously unmet medical needs. But it is hard to escape the conclusion that many other new drugs add little to the therapeutic armamentarium except expense and confusion. Consider the welter of very similar drugs to lower cholesterol levels. Developing genuinely innovative drugs is difficult and chancy. To be profitable, the variation need only be sufficient to secure a new patent, and the rest is marketing.
Critics believe drug companies are doing far too much of that sort of thing.
They also charge that many industry-sponsored clinical trials are designed more to find small advantages that can be highlighted in promotional campaigns than to find clinically meaningful effects. The industry has certainly been ingenious in finding ways to extend patents on its bestselling drugs. For example, a recent Wall Street Journal article describes a complicated business deal between Merck and Schering-Plough for the marketing of two new drug combinations, one to lower serum lipid levels and the other to relieve allergies. The combination drugs will have new patents, and their profits will be shared by both companies. The industry depicts these huge expenditures as serving an educational function.