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September 10, 2007Times' Interview with Novartis CEO Daniel VasellaOn Saturday the New York Times ran an interview with Daniel Vasella and asked him about the rise of obesity and aging in the U.S., drug prices, and decliing industry productivity. Q. Is the pharmaceutical industry part of the cure or part of the problem? A. If you look at the mortality rates from hypertensive heart disease or stroke or gastrointestinal bleeding or cancer, in the past 40 years, these diseases have declined as the cause of mortality by 60 to 70 percent. Medicine has made huge progress and to a large part it’s due to better pharmaceuticals. Having said that, the prices have increased significantly. People are starting to ask, "Is it too expensive?" There are, of course, internal costs which one has to take into account. We have invested 17 percent more, year after year, in the past six years for research and development. Externally, clinical studies have become longer and more difficult. And regulatory authorities, especially the F.D.A., have become extremely risk-averse, increasing the risks of research dramatically. That is all contributing to the cost of pharmaceuticals. Vasella also notes, correctly, that eliminating pharmaceutical industry profits and setting price controls for drugs would not solve our health care woes. Overall, drugs are only a tiny fraction of U.S. health care costs - "a drop in the sea" of the U.S.'s $2 trillion health care economy. Posted by Paul Howard at September 10, 2007 02:40 PM CommentsPost a comment |
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