[Ip-health] Increasing Drug Costs: Are we getting good value?"

[Michelle Childs]

One of the findings of a  study on drug spending in British Columbia (
details below ) was:

 'New =93me-too=94 drugs went from 41% of spending in 1996 to nearly
two-thirds of spending in 2003 and accounted for nearly 80% of the
increased spending in B.C. between these years.'


The article refers to similar findings in France and Sweden. Comments are
requested below.

Michelle


I would like to bring to your attention the July 2006 issue (#59) of the
Therapeutics Letter: "Increasing Drug Costs: Are we getting good value?"
that has
just been published on the Therapeutics Initiative web site at
http://www.ti.ubc.ca/pages/letter59.htm

In this Therapeutics Letter we summarize the findings of a study published
in the
British Medical Journal analyzing the reasons for the increases in
spending on drugs
in British Columbia between 1996 and 2003. This study found few new
"breakthrough"
drugs,

I invite you to drop by and have a look at this Letter. Please feel free
to forward
this message to any of your friends or colleagues that might be interested
in this
topic.

We would appreciate receiving your comments on this Therapeutics Letter
and its
possible implications in clinical practice.

Regards,

Ciprian Jauca
Manager
Therapeutics Initiative
University of British Columbia
Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics
2176 Health Sciences Mall
Vancouver, BC  V6T 1Z3
Canada
Email: jauca@ti.ubc.ca
Tel: +1-604-822-0700
Fax: +1-604-822-0701
Web: www.ti.ubc.ca



--
Michelle Childs -Head of European Affairs
Consumer Project on Technology in London
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