Posted by stargazer on November 21, 2006, at 20:57:22
In reply to Re: Phase IV results where to read?/ yxibow » stargazer, posted by Phillipa on November 21, 2006, at 19:20:37
Phillipa,
You've got me thinking about what you just posted. We have all of our bags/boxes of meds we can't tolerate, right? I have a very hard time throwing those away...I'm a bit of a packrat...what if I need to take it again or give it to someone who could use it. So all of the thousands of us who stop taking the meds for one reason or another send all of our pills back to the Big Pharmas with a "form" which the FDA provides for follow-up. Then the pharmas send you a questionaire about why you stopped the drug and to find out what problems you had while on it. Makes sense to find out who had to stop a drug and for what reason.
Don't they want to know and learn from this? Now that would be the way to do some post-marketing followup...They have to do the pre-marketing studies to get drug approvals but why a lack of interest in follow-up studies? May affect sales if data substantiated drug discontinuation, no that can't be the reason no followup is done.
Would it be beneficial for patients to know the % of drug discontinuations and the reasons for the discontinuations? I'm really interested in seeing a side by side comparison of discontinuation rates, say at 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, etc. It would be a very complicated and time consuming project, but this what the pharmas do best... analyze data and provide statistics, along with, of course R&D. Outcomes are becoming the current focus in clinical arenas, so I'm sure this type of reporting will be required to support high drug costs and minimize risk of lawsuits from poor outcomes, including death.
If yxibow can tell me where to get a Phase IV report (online) to read, I can see what the current report contains, if anything relevant for the consumer to evaluate before trying a drug. Since I have gotten better at reading the package inserts, this should also be an interesting read.
Stargazer
poster:stargazer
thread:703230
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061117/msgs/705990.html