[Pharm-policy] Nice AP story on PC report

[love@cptech.org]

Also, featured on the AOL/IM newsticker.  Jamie

http://dailynews.netscape.com/mynsnews/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=50700&id=200107231754000168663
  
  Monday, July 23, 2001  
 Study: Taxpayers Fund Drug Industry 
WASHINGTON (AP) - More than half the money needed to create top-selling
prescription drugs came from U.S. taxpayers and not industry investment,
says a federal report released Monday by critics of the drug companies.

Best sellers like the ulcer-curing Zantac or Zovirax, which treats
herpes simplex, were developed and tested chiefly through grants from
the National Institutes of Health, the report said.

Out of 131 studies, clinical trials and other tests on five best sellers
from 1995, the NIH deemed only one industry study as key to a drug's
development for use and sale, the report said.

And taxpayers paid again at the counter, contend advocates who released
the NIH document.

``The drug industry is stealing from us twice,'' said Frank Clemente,
director of Public Citizens Congress Watch. ``First it claims that it
needs huge profits to develop new drugs, even while drug companies get
hefty taxpayer subsidies. Second, the companies gouge taxpayers while
spending millions from their profits to buy access to lawmakers and
defeat pro-consumer prescription drug legislation.''

The drug industry responded that, besides the federal funding,
manufacturers spend billions of dollars on testing drugs and bringing
them to market. There was no immediate comment from the National
Institutes of Health.

The NIH document was designed to examine federal contributions to
prescription drug research. The internal study, obtained by Public
Citizen through the Freedom of Information Act, showed that
taxpayer-funded scientists and foreign universities conducted 85 percent
of the published research studies, tests and trials leading to the
discovery and development of five top-selling drugs.

Zantac costs about $100 for 60 pills. Zovirax costs about $145 for 60
pills. The government also played key roles on developing the
hypertension drugs Capoten and its slight alteration Vasotec, which
retail for about $135 for 60 pills, and the anti-depressant Prozac,
which costs about $75 for 30 pills.

Clemente's group said the NIH document supports its argument that
prescription drugs could be more affordable to middle and low-income
seniors. The advocates rejected contentions by some companies that the
cost of developing new medicines is causing the escalation of prices.

But industry officials countered that drug companies still spend
significant amounts on getting a drug to market, even when breakthrough
studies are achieved with government help.

``There has been an honorable division of labor,'' said Jeff Trewhitt, a
spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America,
an industry trade group.

NIH scientists and grant winners conduct fundamental research, he said.

``The companies are primarily researching and developing new drugs and
taking them through the 12-to 15-year drug approval process at great
expense,'' he said, adding that the industry expects to spend $30
billion on research and development for 2001.

Consumer groups have long blamed drug-makers' aggressive marketing for
soaring drug prices. Public Citizen also said that drug makers had spent
$262 million during the 1999-2000 election, which includes $177 million
on lobbying, $65 million on issue ads and $20 million on campaign
contributions.

Lawmakers trying to bring a prescription drug benefit to the federal
health program Medicare also criticized drug makers Monday.

``Millions of our seniors have paid taxes for decades and contributed to
the development of new drugs,'' said Rep Tom Allen, D-Maine. ``Now in
their retirement, they pay the highest prices in the world for these
drugs.''

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On the Net:

Public Citizen Congress Watch: http://www.citizen.org/congress/

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America:
http://www.phrma.org