Many drug trials never see publication

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 1 week (www.sciencenews.org)

Patients asking their doctors if a new drug is right for them would do well to also ask for supporting evidence. Conclusions about drug safety and effectiveness in reports submitted to the FDA are sometimes changed to favor the drug in the medical literature, a new analysis finds. And a quarter of submitted drug trials were never published at all

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Industry shifts focus to immunology and cancer

sea-maid submitted, created time 1 month 4 weeks (www.nature.com)

Economic factors, including competition from generic drugs, is hitting even the big pharmaceutical companies hard, reports Nature. In 2010, Pfizer's Lipitor enters the public domain. For these reasons, the larger companies are narrowing the focus of their research, hitting fewer diseases. They're also working on fewer primary care drugs and more drugs that would be prescribed by specialists, such as cancer drugs.

"When Wyeth Pharmaceuticals announced last week that it would cut some of its research and development (R&D) programs in women's health, the decision seemed counterintuitive

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Drug firms accused of biasing doctors' training