Me, Too

Me, Too

Beyond Me, Too

How many "me-too" drugs is too many?

ON AUGUST 3, 2009, THE US FOOD AND DRUG ADministration (FDA) approved pitavastatin (Livalo), making it the eighth statin approved for use in the United States and seventh currently available for sale. This approval comes almost a quarter century after that for the first member of the class, lovastatin, 8 years after generic lovastatin was approved and 4 years after 2 additional statins, pravast...

Me-too drugs: is there a problem

Introduction This brief note presents an economic perspective on “me-too” drugs (sometimes also called “follow-on” drugs). Me-too drugs are products which largely duplicate the action of existing drugs. Several recent books (such as Angell (2004), Avorn (2004) and Goozner (2004)) have heaped criticism on the drug industry for the increasing extent to which investment appears to be focused on de...

Is it too late to treat me?

We present the case of a 76-year-old Caucasian man with a type 1 endoleak at the proximal edge of a thoracic stentgraft (Talent 38 mm × 114 mm) detected four years after endovascular treatment of a large symptomatic saccular aneurysm in the distal aortic arch. The patient refused any interventional treatment for the endoleak and remained on medical therapy with no evolving symptoms. Surveillanc...