According to an article by Lisa Rapaport for bloomberg.com, Wyeth’s new schizophrenia drug was rejected by the Food and Drug Administration because it wasn’t shown to be effective.
But what do they really mean when they say a drug is not “effective” when we are working in the field of psychiatry?
In rejecting Bifepyunox the FDA said they needed more data showing that the drug, works before the agency will consider approval. Aside from the fact that none of these drugs work because the psychiatric / pharmaceutical industry still have no clue as to what causes schizophrenia much less understand what would actually cure it. So the industry’s idea of a drug “working” is simply that it numbs a person silly so that the outward signs of the problem are no longer visible. Meanwhile, these mind numbing schizophrenia drugs have consistently shown to have seriously harmful side effects.
Wouldn’t something actually be “effective” if we were talking in terms of something that cures what you are suffering from? This is not the case when we are dealing with the field of psychiatric disorders. The idea of an actual cure has long since been abandoned by psychiatry and so they opt for treatment after treatment which they pharmaceutical companies have found are a big cash cow.
In rejecting the drug, the FDA had another small matter that they were concerned about. It seems that need more information about a patient who died while taking the drug during the clinical trials. Hmmm ….
According to Bloomberg, antipsychotics are a $16 billion a year market and Wyeth is intent on getting a share of the big bucks by breaking into the market which is why it has been trying so hard to gain approval on Bifeprunox which they believe will generate as much as $1 billion in annual revenue.
Although their drug is not as “effective” as the other anti-psychotic drugs, Wyeth claims that at least Bifeprunox doesn’t cause weight gain, which is rampant with the other anti-psychotic drugs, which have been linked to diabetes.
What amazes me about this is the utter lack of reasoning ability by the folks who are pushing these drugs. They are saying that Wyeth’s drug Bifeprunox is less effective than similar medicines such as Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zyprexa. Wow! Isn’t Eli Lilly being sued all over the country by victims who were damaged by Zyprexa including a number of states who feel that they were deceived by Lilly? And this new drug is not as effective? In the double-speak of the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry they have now redefined the word “effective” in terms of other drugs which have been shown themselves to be downright destructive.
The irrationality with which these “experts” pump this pro-drug propaganda out is astounding, all in the name of making money off the American public.
Filed under: Diabetes, Drugs, Eli Lilly, FDA, Wyeth, anti-psychotics, pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical marketing, psychiatry, schizophrenia, zyprexa
I agree. I’ve worked with acutely ill psychotic patients for 20 years and in my opinion there are many NEW medications that just DON’T seem to work.
The problem with the old fashioned medications, like Chlorpromazine was that they were sedative, gave you increased risk of sunburn and the list goes on. But Chlorpromazine seemed to work quickly!! I’ve seen this time and time again. The newer medications, although they have fewer side effects, really don’t seem to work. I can honestly say that in my opinion, the use of these newer medications on acutely ill patients don’t seem to help their psychosis and I often think that if the patients were given nothing at all their rate of recovery would be the same.
The drug companies are making a lot of money from these newer tablets and they give the doctors gifts and free meals.
Have a look at my website……..
http://axis1.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/rem-sleep-and-schizophrenia/