A drug company applies to expand its approval for a drug (Tykerb) for advanced breast cancer in the US and Europe. And the only source AP quotes in the story is an employee of the drugmaker. That is not sound journalism.
The story is one of the resounding majority (72%) of health news stories I’ve tracked in the past 3 years that failed to discuss the cost of the product being discussed.
But a woman on a breast cancer discussion board recently claimed:
“The drugs cost almost $6000 per month. I make only $1000 more per month than that. All my savings is wrapped up in real estate and I can’t even sell a house right now to pay for these drugs. How can ANYONE afford these drugs if not covered by insurance?! If anyone has been on this treatment and the drugs have stopped working for them and you have an unused supply, I would appreciate hearing from you. Please don’t throw these expensive drugs away. There are people out there who can use them!”
The story also gave an incomplete accounting of side effects and never quantified the benefits that the drug company put in its application for expanded approval.
Finally, the story failed to give the highly significant context that just last month the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended that the drug “should not be used, except in the context of clinical trials, as it is not a cost effective use of resources.”
HOW CAN ALL OF THIS BE LEFT OUT OF A NEWS STORY?
And before anyone counters, “This is meant to be a business story, not a health news story,” let me just ask if business news readers don’t deserve information on costs, from more than a single conflicted source, and context about steps one government agency has already taken to recommend against the drug.
Comments
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Comments are closed.
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like