THE NEXT time pharmaceutical companies raise dire warnings about federal proposals to measure the cost-effectiveness of their products, they should be required to read the recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine about a kidney drug called Aranesp. For decades, doctors have prescribed this drug or others like it to patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease in the belief that the drugs would prevent heart disease and combat fatigue in patients. The result of a randomly assigned clinical trial of more than 4,000 patients in 24 countries? Aranesp did no better than a placebo in preventing heart disease, reduced fatigue only modestly, and nearly doubled a patient’s risk of a stroke.
via boston.com
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