When I was working on the issue of DTC and patient information a couple of years back (my report may be downloaded here) , I sometimes wondered why a European firm didn’t simply take out an ad to say : "We have many drugs that could help you, but we are not allowed to tell you about them."
The other day, some oncologists in Denmark did a similar thing. According to some new authority, there is no evidence that the benefit from the cancer medicine Avastin outweighs the negative impact of side-effects. This would justify the decision not to make this product the first choice when treating lung cancer.
The oncologists begged to differ, and circulated a letter to the concerned patients to inform them of their view.
According to the Swedish website Dagens Medicin, the central authority Danske Regioner will now stop this letter from being sent.
Said the politician in charge : "It would be very unethical to distribute such letters now that we have done so much to build confidence in Danish cancer treatments."
Really ? Is it more "ethical" to silence doctors who actually believe in the benefits of a certain treatment ? Probably not; but this is about saving money, sorry, rational use of drugs.
The other day, some oncologists in Denmark did a similar thing. According to some new authority, there is no evidence that the benefit from the cancer medicine Avastin outweighs the negative impact of side-effects. This would justify the decision not to make this product the first choice when treating lung cancer.
The oncologists begged to differ, and circulated a letter to the concerned patients to inform them of their view.
According to the Swedish website Dagens Medicin, the central authority Danske Regioner will now stop this letter from being sent.
Said the politician in charge : "It would be very unethical to distribute such letters now that we have done so much to build confidence in Danish cancer treatments."
Really ? Is it more "ethical" to silence doctors who actually believe in the benefits of a certain treatment ? Probably not; but this is about saving money, sorry, rational use of drugs.
