INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH & OPINION
Regulatory and Healthcare News
Protecting elderly people from inappropriate medications
In the US, a report by the Alliance for Aging Research (AAR) calls for incentives for phannaceutical companies to conduct phase IIIb and postmarketing surveillance studies to identify potential problems and limitations of medications that will be frequently used by elderly people. The US FDA should encourage such studies, recommends the report.
Approximately $US20 billion per year is spent in the US for hospitalisations that are caused by the inappropriate use of medications, comments the chairman of the Senate Public Health and Safety Subcommittee, Senator Frist.
Adverse or therapeutic outcome? The AAR report also recommends the compilation
of a list of medications that are potentially inappropriate for use in elderly people. Such a screening tool should be included as part of prospective drug-utilisation review programmes in healthcare settings, adds the report. There are enough data documenting the very high risk of some drugs for adverse rather than therapeutic outcomes due to the special biology of aging, said the chairman of the AAR report panel.
Information on appropriate use for elderly patients should also be considered in the labelling of over-thecounter medications, according to the AAR report.
Geriatric study incentives modeled on pediatric patent extensions suggested. FOC Repons - Pink Sheet - Prescription Phannaceuticals and Biotechnology 60: II, 15 Jun 1998 1100.'".,.,
1173·5503l98I0168·000111$01 .00° Adl. International Llmltecl1898. All right. ~ PharmacoEconomics & 0u1e0mes News X7 Jun 1998 No. 168
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