Making Medicines Affordable
Making Medicines Affordable

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2018-03-01

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 0309468086

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Thanks to remarkable advances in modern health care attributable to science, engineering, and medicine, it is now possible to cure or manage illnesses that were long deemed untreatable. At the same time, however, the United States is facing the vexing challenge of a seemingly uncontrolled rise in the cost of health care. Total medical expenditures are rapidly approaching 20 percent of the gross domestic product and are crowding out other priorities of national importance. The use of increasingly expensive prescription drugs is a significant part of this problem, making the cost of biopharmaceuticals a serious national concern with broad political implications. Especially with the highly visible and very large price increases for prescription drugs that have occurred in recent years, finding a way to make prescription medicinesâ€"and health care at largeâ€"more affordable for everyone has become a socioeconomic imperative. Affordability is a complex function of factors, including not just the prices of the drugs themselves, but also the details of an individual's insurance coverage and the number of medical conditions that an individual or family confronts. Therefore, any solution to the affordability issue will require considering all of these factors together. The current high and increasing costs of prescription drugsâ€"coupled with the broader trends in overall health care costsâ€"is unsustainable to society as a whole. Making Medicines Affordable examines patient access to affordable and effective therapies, with emphasis on drug pricing, inflation in the cost of drugs, and insurance design. This report explores structural and policy factors influencing drug pricing, drug access programs, the emerging role of comparative effectiveness assessments in payment policies, changing finances of medical practice with regard to drug costs and reimbursement, and measures to prevent drug shortages and foster continued innovation in drug development. It makes recommendations for policy actions that could address drug price trends, improve patient access to affordable and effective treatments, and encourage innovations that address significant needs in health care.

Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic
Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2017-09-28

Total Pages: 483

ISBN-13: 0309459575

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Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

Side Effects of Drugs Annual
Side Effects of Drugs Annual

Author: Jeffrey K. Aronson

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2011-08-19

Total Pages: 715

ISBN-13: 0080522815

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The Side Effects of Drugs Annual was first published in 1977. It has been continually published since then, as a yearly update to the voluminous encyclopedia Meyler's Side Effects of Drugs. Each new Annual continues to provide clinicians and medical investigators with a reliable and critical yearly survey of new data and trends in the area of Adverse Drug Reactions and Interactions. An international team of specialists has contributed to the Annuals by selecting critically from each year's writing all that is truly new and informative, by critically interpreting it, and by pointing to whatever is misleading. - Provides a critical yearly survey of new data and trends - Includes an essay that describes the modern approach to classifying adverse drug reactions - Special reviews in this Annual include, among other topics: Antipsychotic drugs and now-onset diabetes mellitus, Treating asthma during pregnancy, and MMR vaccine and autism

Medical Devices and the Public's Health
Medical Devices and the Public's Health

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2011-11-25

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 0309212421

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Medical devices that are deemed to have a moderate risk to patients generally cannot go on the market until they are cleared through the FDA 510(k) process. In recent years, individuals and organizations have expressed concern that the 510(k) process is neither making safe and effective devices available to patients nor promoting innovation in the medical-device industry. Several high-profile mass-media reports and consumer-protection groups have profiled recognized or potential problems with medical devices cleared through the 510(k) clearance process. The medical-device industry and some patients have asserted that the process has become too burdensome and is delaying or stalling the entry of important new medical devices to the market. At the request of the FDA, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) examined the 510(k) process. Medical Devices and the Public's Health examines the current 510(k) clearance process and whether it optimally protects patients and promotes innovation in support of public health. It also identifies legislative, regulatory, or administrative changes that will achieve the goals of the 510(k) clearance process. Medical Devices and the Public's Health recommends that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gather the information needed to develop a new regulatory framework to replace the 35-year-old 510(k) clearance process for medical devices. According to the report, the FDA's finite resources are best invested in developing an integrated premarket and postmarket regulatory framework.

Safe and Effective Medicines for Children
Safe and Effective Medicines for Children

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2012-10-13

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13: 0309225493

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The Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA) and the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) were designed to encourage more pediatric studies of drugs used for children. The FDA asked the IOM to review aspects of pediatric studies and changes in product labeling that resulted from BPCA and PREA and their predecessor policies, as well as assess the incentives for pediatric studies of biologics and the extent to which biologics have been studied in children. The IOM committee concludes that these policies have helped provide clinicians who care for children with better information about the efficacy, safety, and appropriate prescribing of drugs. The IOM suggests that more can be done to increase knowledge about drugs used by children and thereby improve the clinical care, health, and well-being of the nation's children.

The Future of Drug Safety
The Future of Drug Safety

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2007-03-27

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 0309103045

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In the wake of publicity and congressional attention to drug safety issues, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested the Institute of Medicine assess the drug safety system. The committee reported that a lack of clear regulatory authority, chronic underfunding, organizational problems, and a scarcity of post-approval data about drugs' risks and benefits have hampered the FDA's ability to evaluate and address the safety of prescription drugs after they have reached the market. Noting that resources and therefore efforts to monitor medications' riskâ€"benefit profiles taper off after approval, The Future of Drug Safety offers a broad set of recommendations to ensure that consideration of safety extends from before product approval through the entire time the product is marketed and used.

Prescription Drugs
Prescription Drugs

Author: Marcia Crosse

Publisher: DIANE Publishing

Published: 2008-12

Total Pages: 46

ISBN-13: 1437908837

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The FDA regulates the promotion of prescription drugs (PD) to ensure that promotional materials are not false and misleading and that they comply with applicable laws and regulations. FDA prohibits drug co. from promoting PD for off-label uses -- that is, for a condition or patient population for which the PD has not been approved or in a manner that is inconsistent with info. found on the approved PD label. Although doctors may prescribe PD off label, it is not permissible for drug co. to promote PD for off-label uses. FDA may take regulatory actions for violations. This report provides info. about the promotion of PD for off-label uses. It reviewed: how FDA oversees the promotion of off-label uses of PD; and what actions have been taken to address off-label PD.