The Economist: "Pill-gotten gains"

The April 10th edition of the Economist magazine offered a short but significant review of "The $800 Million Pill." Like Business Week, the unsigned review accepts the essential accuracy of my analysis: that much industry R&D is wasted, and that significant breakthroughs almost always originate in the public sector. But unlike its U.S. rival, the British reviewer read the concluding section of the book with enough care to suggest its key reform -- comparative clinical trials that might dissuade drugmakers from pursuing me-too drugs -- doesn't go far enough. "Alas, such are the powerful entrenched interests in drugmaking that it will take something stronger than a dose of information to calm the current fever over pill-pricing," the review concluded.

Memo to the Economist from this side of the pond: Even getting this one change passed in the current U.S. political environment would be a major victory, and a start toward more comprehensive reform of the medical innovation process.