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Pharma exec say most drugs don’t work on most people; The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people. Dr. Allen Roses, worldwide vice president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (2003); stated that most prescription drugs don’t work on most people.
SHARYL ATTKISSON & Dr. Paul Alexander
The vast majority of drugs - more than 90 per cent - only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people. Dr. Allen Roses, worldwide vice president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (2003)
It seemed like a seminal moment.
A top executive with Great Britain’s biggest drug company at the time, GlaxoSmithKline, stated that most prescription drugs don’t work on most people.
The admission was made by Dr. Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline, at a scientific conference in 2003 and not intended for a consumer audience. But the frank statement made its way into popular news and grabbed headlines.
According to one news article, “It is an open secret within the drugs industry that most of its products are ineffective in most patients but this is the first time that such a senior drugs boss has gone public.”
Considering the trillions upon trillions that governments and individuals spend on prescription medicine, it’s a remarkable fact. It means most of the money we spend on drugs is utterly wasted while patients are needlessly exposed to side effects. In other words, most aren’t helped by the medicine they take, but stand to be hurt by it.
At the scientific conference in 2003, Roses cited data on the effectiveness of classes of drugs in real patients. The data showed “drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work in about half the patients.” The numbers were even worse for cancer drugs. They worked in only one in four patients.
Most drugs work in fewer than half of patients “mainly because the recipients carry genes that interfere in some way with the medicine,” said Roses, an academic geneticist at Duke University.
Can’t profit without 90% to the big guy.