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Saving & Improving Lives
 New Medicines Transforming Patient Care
New Medicines Offer Patients an Alternative to Surgery and Hospitalization
New Medicines Save More Lives
New Medicines Improve the Quality of Life
Since 1990, scientists have discovered and developed over 300 completely new medicines, vaccines, and biologics approved by FDA to treat over 150 conditions.[i] These new medicines treat a variety of illnesses from infectious to chronic diseases and from diseases afflicting millions of patients to rare disorders affecting less than 200,000.
Recent advances are helping to meet the emerging diabetes epidemic, save the lives of cancer patients, and forestall the terrible burden of Alzheimer's. The progress made in reducing death rates from heart disease and stroke is saving the lives of over 1 million Americans each year.
In addition, pharmaceutical research company scientists have secured approval for new medicines for a number of serious, but rare conditions such as Fabry's disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and rare cancers.
Innovative new medicines make it possible to prevent or slow the progress of many diseases and avoid costly hospitalization and invasive surgery. Between 1980 and 2000, the number of hospital days fell by 56%. As a result, Americans avoided 206 million days of hospital care in 2000 alone because of our investment in health care.[ii]
Ulcer surgery becomes a relic of the past
Pharmaceutical research company scientists developed new medicines to treat a number of gastrointestinal disorders over the past two decades. Since these medicines became available to patients, surgical procedures to correct ulcers has fallen, and today ulcer surgery is a relic of the past.[iii]
Medicines reduce hospitalization and surgery for heart disease
Several studies have found that use of statin therapy to treat people with high cholesterol reduces hospital admissions and invasive cardiac surgeries. For example, a study of one statin showed that it reduced hospital admissions by a third during five years of treatment. It also reduced the number of days that patients had to spend in the hospital when they were admitted, and reduced the need for bypass surgery and angioplasty.[iv]
New drug treatments delay nursing home care for Alzheimer's patients
A new Alzheimer's drug slows the progression of cognitive decline, allowing patients to maintain their independence longer. As a result of higher functioning, they are able to delay entering a nursing home by an average of 30 months. Nursing home care is more costly than in-home care, so this delay can significantly reduce expenditures. By reducing the symptoms of this devastating disease, this medicine reduces the economic and emotional burden on both patient and care-giver.[v] New medicines play a significant role in the life expectancy gains made in the U.S. and around the world. Recent research published in the journal Health Affairs, concludes that new medicines generated 40% of the two-year gain in life expectancy achieved in 52 countries between 1986 and 2000.
In many cases new medicines and vaccines help prevent disease, in addition to those that may cure or alleviate previously fatal or debilitating conditions.
Death rate falls for HIV/AIDS with advent of new medicines
New medicines have made a major contribution to the decline in the death rate from HIV/AIDS in the U.S. over the last 10 years. Since the mid-1990s, when researchers developed a new wave of medicines to treat HIV/AIDS, the U.S. death rate from AIDS dropped about 70 percent.[vi]
New cancer drugs increase survival
Since 1971, when the U.S. declared war on cancer, our arsenal of cancer medicines has tripled. These new drugs account for 50-60% of the increase in six-year cancer survival rates since 1975, Frank Lichtenberg of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business recently reported. Today, there are 3 million more cancer survivors than there were a decade ago.[vii]
Use of medicines prevents strokes
A study sponsored by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research concluded that increased use of a blood-thinning drug would prevent 40,000 strokes a year, saving $600 million annually.[viii]
Innovative medicines are not only extending more people's lives, but also giving them higher-quality, more independent lives.
Medicine improves quality of life for children with asthma
One recent study found that children with asthma enrolled in a comprehensive disease management program that included appropriate medications experienced significant quality of life improvements. As their symptoms decreased and their capacity for activity rose, they reported greater emotional well-being.
"Over the last century, the value of gains in life expectancy seen in the US is greater than the total value of all the measured growth in our economic output. New drugs are no small part of this medical miracle... And for the developing countries of the world, the health improvements have been even more valuable. Drug treatments for infectious diseases and other illnesses of the developing world have permitted even greater gains in life expectancy in developing nations than in countries like the US . Consequently, innovation in drugs and other medical treatments is helping to reduce the worldwide economic inequality that has long resulted from health inequality."[ix]
- Dr. Mark McClellan, Then-Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, September 2003
[i] Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, "A Decade of Innovation", September 2003.
[ii] MEDTAP International, Inc. The Value of Investment in Health Care. Bethesda, MD: 2004. Available at: http://www.medtap.com/Products/policy.cfm (Accessed 28 April 2005).
[iii] M. McClellan, "Speech Before the First International Colloquium on Generic Medicine", speech, September 25, 2003.
[iv] "Cholesterol Pill Linked to Lower Hospital Costs", The New York Times, March 27, 1995.
[v] G Provenzano, et al., "Delays in nursing home placement for patients with Alzheimer"
[vi] CASCADE Collaboration, "Determinants of Survival Following HIV-1 seroconversion after introduction of HAART," The Lancet, 362 (2003):1267-1274
[vii] Frank R. Lichtenberg, "The Expanding Pharmaceutical Arsenal in the War on Cancer", National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 10328 (Cambridge, MA: NBER, February 2004).
[viii] D. B. Matchar, G. P.Samsa, Secondary and Tertiary Prevention of Stroke, Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) Final Report - Phase 1, AHRQ Pub. No. 00-N001, Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, June 2000.
[ix] M. McClellan, "Speech Before the First International Colloquium on Generic Medicine", speech, September 25, 2003.
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