Pharma Blog Watch

New Drug Approvals in 2006 (GoozNews)
In his blog, Merrill Goozner discusses drug approvals, in response to numbers recently released by the FDA. "Why has pharmaceutical innovation fallen on hard times? The Food and Drug Administration approved just 22 new drugs last year, one of the lowest levels in decades. Moreover, only half of those were considered priorities by the agency, in other words, they were a significant medical advance over existing drugs on the market."

In addition, "better than two-thirds of new drugs fail to get FDA approval because the drugs aren't worth much, and in half the cases, are no better than placebo. From a medical standpoint, taking the sugar pill would make more sense because there is no chance of side effects."