Drugmakers mine data for trial patients
By:Carol Eisenberg
www.Businessweekly.com
In the article, it explains that drug makers can spend years and approximately $1 Billion dollars only to release a new drug to the public. High profile drug manufacturers such as Pfizer are looking for ways to be more efficient in their attempts. they have thought of a new way to purchase patient information from hospitals in order to generate more sales and to run trial studies on groups of people that would in fact be more effective rather than randomly asking the public to start a trial run for a prescription drug.
Its believed that thee are groups of people all over that are worried their information could technically be bought, sold and used to drug makers all over the world. Also, if this is possible, doctors will be targeted to give information to the creators of the drugs. Programs similar to this have already began as in New York records were collected in order to identify and enroll patients into new drugs on the market. This testing was estimated to generate $75 Million dollars annually if organized and implemented correctly. There is now a program called PACer which stands for the Partnership to Advance Clinical Electronic Research. With PACer, companies such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Bayer Healthcare help operate the program.
In order for a company to use the indentifying mechanism, the company must pay PACeR to query records and compile a list of patients that could potentially benefit from the drug at hand.
"We're not dumping big buckets of de-identified data anyplace", stated Dr. Krusch I think that this was absolutely, positively foreseen as our management information systems have reached their peak and companies want to seek the profits in the industry that continues to flourish. I think that if the query checks are done, a fraction of the cost to do the query should be donated to charities and funds for those who are ill. We need to think of ways to cure cancer and other deadly illnesses. The only way we will be able to solve any serious issues is if we have researchers research, which can be expensive.
Wes,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a fantastic job writing this. It is amazing to look at how much money drug companies spend. When people are purchasing these drugs they have no idea what goes into making it. It was also interesting to look at what PACer is doing for companies. I think Pfizer is a respectable company because they are taking time to really develop and market the product before throwing it to the public, they want to be sure of what they are doing. I like how they compile a list of patients that will benefit from the drug they are going to test.
Overall Wes, wonderful job and it was a really fascinating article to read because its not about technology its more about the drugs and how they are produced and sold. Good job incorporating a picture and using the link in the article that’s smart I should have done something like that!