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A comment on India Supreme Court rejects Novartis' right to patent new version of cancer drug. Parent comment

Re:India Supreme Court rejects Novartis' right to patent new... by zosima on Monday April 01, 2013 @02:40PM (#5475021)
Doctors may just use the drug off-label. If the patient responds then they use the drug, otherwise they try something else. A formal trial really helps very little in these cases.

If a bunch of clinicians find that the drug is effective against the condition, they can (as has happened so many times) make their own study to popularize the usage.

Remember: The safety of the drug is not in question, just the efficiacy.

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Re:India Supreme Court rejects Novartis' right to patent new... by refurb on Monday April 01, 2013 @04:21PM (#5475634)
But how do physicians know it works if trials aren't run? You can't go by anecdotal evidence.

Hell, look at the huge niacin trial that Merck ran. Doctors have been prescribing it for 30 years and you know what? It doesn't help. Unless a massive clinical trial was run, you'd never know whether it was worth prescribing.

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