Rethink regulations for new drug therapies
July 28, 2011
Orange County Register
By Thair Phillips, President, RetireSafe
The biotech revolution has brought hope to millions of Americans coping with some of the most devastating medical conditions, including cancer, Parkinson’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis. New prescription drugs, known as biologics, that were born of this revolution now comprise the fastest-growing segment of the pharmaceutical market and could account for half of all new drugs approved by 2015.
With intense pressure on governments to control rising health care costs, a push is underway to introduce lower-cost biotech medicines that function more or less as equivalents of these biologics. But a host of complicating factors surrounding biologics – not least of which is patient safety – have doctors, patients, drug companies, and regulators trying to work through the thorny problems unique to these drugs.
