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The Cost of Innovation

Vladimir Hachinski, MD, FRCPC, DScMed

Arch Neurol. 1998;55:1142.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

EPILEPSY IS a common and complex syndrome, affecting about 1% of the world's population. Phenobarbitone, phenytoin, valproate sodium, and carbamazepine remain the main drugs of monotherapy, giving adequate control in more than half of patients. The challenge and the costs increase with refractory seizures, with each drug required being relatively less effective.

As Chadwick points out, the newer drugs can offer advantages in providing similar efficacy with greater tolerance, having a better safety profile, or acting through a different mechanism than the standard medications. All the new drugs are more expensive but this has to be weighed against the cost of poor seizure control.

A great need for better, more specific, less toxic AEDS remains. While licensing bodies and drug plan payers are justifiably leery about approving or paying for new drugs that are merely variations of currently available pharmaceuticals, new AEDs that reduce seizure . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Do New Antiepileptic Drugs Justify Their Expense?
David Chadwick
Arch Neurol. 1998;55(8):1140-1142.
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