Well, personally, I think the model is broken. One of the real issues here is that there are effective treatments for many conditions which do not get to market because they are unpatentable. For instance, St John's wort, which is about as effective as SSRI's is rarely used because it hasn't been through enough trials.
Claiming that the cost of clinical trials is the major reason that the drugs need to be priced that high is true, as far as it goes. The issue is that the pharmacuetical companies lobby for more regulation to keep out other treatments not backed by themselves. In addition, they focus on drugs that can cure lifestyle choices (obesity, for example) as rich people can afford them and these will provide a good ROI. Malaria, a disease which is eminently treatable is not focused on as it is a disease which effects poor people.
Another major issue is that the companies suppress negative research and studies which show defects in their products. Its an extremely broken system.
What I would propose is the following:
1) new development of drugs should be carried out by private companies and universities.
2) Patents arising from this research should be under a compulsory licensing scheme, based on the outcome of clinical trials.
3) Clinical trials should be paid for directly by healthcare systems, to avoid duplication of research and to prevent the suppression of negative research.
4) Manufacturing should be completely separate companies who can tool up and down plants. Currently, plants get built in anticipation of approval and then shut down if problems arise, which is extremely wasteful.
This would allow the private sector to retain development and manufacturing (but in different companies) and the governments would have much more incentive to conduct good clinical trials, and the results would be public so others could re-analyse the data and find better links with conditions, drugs and outcomes.
Claiming that the cost of clinical trials is the major reason that the drugs need to be priced that high is true, as far as it goes. The issue is that the pharmacuetical companies lobby for more regulation to keep out other treatments not backed by themselves. In addition, they focus on drugs that can cure lifestyle choices (obesity, for example) as rich people can afford them and these will provide a good ROI. Malaria, a disease which is eminently treatable is not focused on as it is a disease which effects poor people.
Another major issue is that the companies suppress negative research and studies which show defects in their products. Its an extremely broken system.
What I would propose is the following:
1) new development of drugs should be carried out by private companies and universities.
2) Patents arising from this research should be under a compulsory licensing scheme, based on the outcome of clinical trials.
3) Clinical trials should be paid for directly by healthcare systems, to avoid duplication of research and to prevent the suppression of negative research.
4) Manufacturing should be completely separate companies who can tool up and down plants. Currently, plants get built in anticipation of approval and then shut down if problems arise, which is extremely wasteful.
This would allow the private sector to retain development and manufacturing (but in different companies) and the governments would have much more incentive to conduct good clinical trials, and the results would be public so others could re-analyse the data and find better links with conditions, drugs and outcomes.