| The pharmaceutical industry is facing a coarse | | | | One difficulty is that while these drug firms can |
| couple of years. The 'patent-expiration cliff' slated | | | | choose from many targets to attack, they |
| for 2012-2013, in which lucrative brand-name | | | | cannot define which would be most beneficial. |
| drugs will lose exclusiveness and face less | | | | Even when one anomaly is targeted successfully, |
| expensive generics. To offset the losses they are | | | | the carcinoma usually creates other anomalies, |
| expecting, many pharmaceuticals attempting to | | | | and permutations and complications so enormous |
| find profits have turned to oncology and creating | | | | that finding the right combo for a given patient's |
| cancer drugs. | | | | physiology is almost impossible. |
| This will sound like excellent news. But current | | | | Then there's the issue of financial interest. |
| motivations and market conditions may actually | | | | Insurance corporations and regimes tend to shell |
| work to the detriment of pharmaceuticals and | | | | out the sums needed for cancer care with |
| patients alike. Today, with cancer the following | | | | relative ease, so drug corporations find they can |
| promising revenue source, a really well known | | | | charge high costs for drugs that barely work, on |
| New York-based chemical company employs one | | | | the off-chance a given drug might save a life. Are |
| thousand analysts developing cancer treatments, | | | | drug companies actually attempting to find a |
| spends 20 percent of its $7-billion-plus research | | | | cure? Or are they just satisfied with developing |
| and development budget on cancer, and has | | | | less dramatic treatments that fill their coffers? |
| roughly twenty-two cancer drugs in controlled | | | | They may not have the inducement required to |
| trials. | | | | develop cures or hugely improved treatments, |
| Pharmaceutical companies are pouring billions of | | | | when they can make enough money creating |
| greenbacks into developing cancer drugs. Latest | | | | stopgap drugs. |
| systematic discoveries allowing for new targets in | | | | Naturally, pharma executives reject such a cold |
| cancer research have generated about 860 drugs | | | | hearted conclusion. They'd gladly make better |
| in trials -- much more than for any other | | | | drugs that would offer bigger gains, they say. But |
| infirmities, including heart problems and stroke. | | | | this is likely tempered by the companies' and |
| Some critics call the excess a 'cancer bubble.' | | | | shareholders' wants. |
| Still, with hundreds of new potentials and billions of | | | | The prevailing 'cancer bubble,' with so many rivals, |
| greenbacks poured into cancer research, a cure | | | | so many drugs, and not enough room in the |
| should be approaching, right? Unfortunately, few | | | | marketplace for all, begs the issue of whether |
| drugs have made it to the market -- only one this | | | | today's big investments in cancer drugs will ever |
| year. And many of those drugs aren't | | | | bear fruit, or if some companies and their |
| revolutionary treatments, but medicines that | | | | investors will get burned. One drug company aims |
| extend life by days or months -- or, in some | | | | for $11 bill in cancer-drug sales by 2018, more |
| cases, that simply stabilise the patient, and at a | | | | than quadrupling last year's sales in the whole |
| very high cost. | | | | category. |