Philippe Pignarre, an expert on the pharmaceutical industry (for which he worked for 17 years), reveals here some of the rules governing this rather peculiar world. In particular, he mentions the links in many countries between doctors and the pharmaceutical laboratories, which complicates the relationship between them and the use that may be made of medicines.
He also discusses recent developments in medicines, especially thanks to the discovery of antibiotics, which have radically transformed the methods employed in clinical studies.
The global pharmaceutical industry is currently seeing its costs rising while at the same time the number of new medicines is falling and their efficacy is not always yet proven. The increasing costs of medicines could well threaten the system of subsidizing prescriptions and indeed patients themselves. Moreover, as the author explains, the study of medicines in fact raises a far more general problem about the uncertainties relating to the effects of these substances on human beings over the long term.
The Future of Medicines
This article is published in Futuribles journal ,
