Originally published July 21 2005
Crackdown on pharmaceuticals puts squeeze on smaller businesses
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Winston-Salem Journal reports that small pharmaceutical businesses fear the effect of tighter testing standards for clinical drug trials, but critics of the industry say it is the withdrawal of insufficiently tested drugs that is responsible for the crackdown.
When Don deBethizy, the president of Targacept Inc. in Winston-Salem, said recently that he wants to team up with another company to help market his drugs, he's not just trying to sell new medicine.
The tightening controls on the way the government and the drug industry oversee clinical trials for medications could make it harder for smaller companies such as Targacept to develop and market their drugs, officials said.
Withdrawals of some of the country's most popular drugs have given the public a dim view of the pharmaceutical industry, and the government will have to enact new laws to improve drug safety, said Curt Furberg, a professor of public-health sciences at Wake Forest University Health Sciences.
Typically, drugs that enter phase three of development are considered ready to market.
But critics complain that some drug companies deliberately mislead the public about their products and often try to hide clinical information to more easily receive government approval of drugs.
Inc. pulled Vioxx, its popular anti-arthritis drug, off the market in September because it had been shown to increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Pfizer Inc. pulled Bextra, its anti-arthritis drug, off the market in April because it had been shown to increase the risk of heart disease.
The Food and Drug Administration has mandated that Pfizer and other companies marketing similar drugs put warnings on their product labels, advising customers of the drugs' potential for cardiovascular dangers.
The withdrawals - and growing complaints about the drug industry - have prompted patient advocates to demand more federal scrutiny of the pharmaceutical industry.
The proposed demands could dramatically increase the cost of developing pharmaceuticals - and that could have an economic impact on smaller drug companies, local pharmaceutical officials said.
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