Originally published January 17 2006
Glaxo VP admits most patients don't benefit from prescription drugs
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In a comment that baffled media and drug industry experts alike, Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), remarked that fewer than half of patients prescribed drugs derive any benefit from them.
A senior executive with Britain's biggest drugs company has admitted that most prescription medicines do not work on most people who take them.
Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them.
It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs boss has gone public.
GSK announced last week that it had 20 or more new drugs under development that could each earn the company up to $1bn (�600m) a year.
Most drugs work in fewer than one in two patients mainly because the recipients carry genes that interfere in some way with the medicine, he said.
"The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people," Dr Roses said.
Drugs out there on the market work, but they don't work in everybody."
Some industry analysts said Dr Roses's comments were reminiscent of the 1991 gaffe by Gerald Ratner, the jewelry boss, who famously said that his high street shops are successful because they sold "total crap".
But others believe Dr Roses deserves credit for being honest about a little-publicized fact known to the drugs industry for many years.
"Roses is a smart guy and what he is saying will surprise the public but not his colleagues," said one industry scientist.
"He is a pioneer of a new culture within the drugs business based on using genes to test for who can benefit from a particular drug."
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