Unsafe Drugs?
Robert W. Griffith, MD January 7, 2005 Introduction Having worked for 25 years in the research arm of the pharmaceutical industry, I haven’t been very surprised by the recent reports of side effects with some best- seller drugs. As I was taught early on, “there are no therapeutic roses without thorns”. It all depends, of course, on how big the thorns are! Every effective drug has side effects, and the secret lies in balancing the benefits the drug can bring against the risks it may carry. It’s in everyone’s interest that this risk-to-benefit ratio is calculated as carefully as possible. The withdrawal of Vioxx and the subsequent disclosures about the safety of Bextra and Celebrex have led people to blame the pharmaceutical industry (Big-Pharma) and the FDA (the US Food and Drug Administration) for putting unsafe drugs on the market. But it’s a little more complicated than that. There’s plenty of blame to go around, and I’ll try to apportion some of it. Big-Pharma The role of the pharma
