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YES YES THATS RIGHT
AND 3500 were killed by terrorists 3 YEARS AGO but we are never allowed to forget THAT.
[edit on 21-1-2007 by esecallum]
Originally posted by Tom Bedlam
Cynic:
That is a very interesting article. I read it a few days ago.
I think the issue is that it is unpatentable in its present form. Due to the astoundingly high costs of getting anything past the FDA, and due to the fact that the drug is cheap and unpatentable, you'll never see a drug company pay the hundreds of millions of dollars to get this filed.
I can see the point, they have to answer to their stockholders. It's not their job to spend major bucks to validate a new use for a generic. So it will stay an "off label" application, which means the physician will be liable legally for using it that way. Few will.
What's needed is some governmental agency that's tasked with bringing such drugs on-label. Maybe in league with some university that actually does the leg work. After all, the students in the university's pharma programs will eventually need to know how the process works. Why not let them contribute the work for free as part of their education, and let the government assist some number of these drugs to market financially?
It's a shame to let promising older drugs lay fallow like this.