“Golden pill” eludes industry
Prescrire, a French drug review publication, has, for the sixth year running, failed to find a winner for its Golden Pill award.
The award is given for drugs that are “a major therapeutic advance
in a field in which no useful treatment was previously available”.
The last award was given in 1998 for the protease inhibitor indinavir
(Crixivan).
The publication’s latest honours list (for 2003) includes carglumic
acid (Carbaglu) for the treatment of hyperammonaemia due to N-acetylglutamate
synthetase deficiency, hepatitis B immunoglobulin for prevention of recurrent
hepatitis B after liver transplantation and conjugated meningococcal
C vaccine (Meningitec).
The journal gives a “noteworthy” mention to drugs that have
made a more modest contribution to patient management. These include
adefovir (Hepsera) for treatment of some cases of chronic hepatitis B,
imatinib (Glivec) for first-line treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia,
valganciclovir (Valcyte) for oral treatment of cytomegalovirus retinitis,
and voriconazole (Vfend) for severe fungal infection due to Scedosporium species. |
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