Drugs firms 'neglect most needy'

Drugs may be more specifically targeted

Pharmaceutical companies are neglecting the needs of women, children and older people, a think-tank says.

A report by The King's Fund, an independent think-tank, accuses the government of failing to take the lead in determining research priorities.

It calls for a taskforce to be set up to ensure research into new drugs is focused on where the need is greatest.

The government insisted it was defining and assessing patients' needs through its collaboration with the industry.

The King's Fund report accepts that pharmaceutical companies are driven by commercial interests, but suggests that the NHS is getting a raw deal by not doing enough to set priorities.

The companies do a great deal of good with the drugs they do develop, but our argument is that their work is not comprehensive Anthony Harrison The King's Fund

It allows drug companies to test treatments on NHS patients using NHS staff; and sanctions prices to be set high enough to return companies a profit that can be ploughed back into research.

But the authors claim it has tended to be a "passive purchaser" - worrying when the NHS drugs bill has soared by 50% in the past three years.

One of the report authors, Anthony Harrison, told BBC's Radio 4's Today programme: "The companies do a great deal of good with the drugs they do develop, but our argument is that their work is not comprehensive and some medical needs get neglected."

He said public funding for clinical trials had to be improved by more partnerships with the private sector.

And he pointed to efforts to supply more drugs to Third World countries as a large-scale model of what was needed in the UK.

Industry admission

The report follows closely after an admission - by senior figures in the pharmaceutical industry - that fewer than half of patients prescribed the most expensive drugs actually benefited from them.

Allen Roses, of GlaxoSmithKline, was quoted in a national newspaper as saying more than 90% of drugs only work in 30-50% of people.

He said: "Drugs on the market work, but they don't work in everybody."

Mr Roses, an expert in genetics, said new developments should help tailor drugs more specifically.

At present, pharmaceutical companies adopt a "one-drug-fits-all" policy.

But a spokesman for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said a large proportion of its work focussed on children, women and the elderly.

"Vaccines have all but eliminated many of the diseases that used to afflict children, while new medicines to tackle, for example, breast and ovarian cancers have saved or extended the lives of millions of women.

"As far as the diseases that are preponderant among older people, much has been done to understand the causes of conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

"There are already many medicines available in these areas, and many more are at various stages of the research process.

"In addition, we have developed many new treatments for a wide range of cancers, for osteoporosis and for heart disease."