"When many cures are offered for a disease, it means the disease is not curable" -Anton Chekhov
''Once you tell people there's a cure for something, the more likely they are to pressure doctors to prescribe it.'' -Robert Ehrlich, drug advertising executive.
"Opinions are like sphincters, everyone has one." - Chris Rangel
Pricey Drugs: This story about aspirin being superior to and less expensive than another anti-clotting drug is a bit off base. The more expensive drug is usually used when aspirin has failed, such as when someone has a stroke when taking aspirin once a day, or in conditions that don’t respond all that well to aspirin, such as severe hardening of the arteries. The study the story is based on assumed that the more expensive drug, Plavix, would be given to everyone after a heart attack. This just doesn’t happen, at least not in my neck of the woods. The average heart attack patient goes home with instructions to take aspirin once a day. The only ones who go home with Plavix are those who had a stent placed in their coronary arteries, and even then they only take it for about six weeks. The media are on a rip about drug prices. The issue certainly deserves attention, but the media should be more selective in the stories they decide to run with. Not all pricey drugs are bad or overused. posted by Sydney on
6/07/2002 07:20:00 AM
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