Spellberg: Rising Plague

From Scienticity

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Brad Spellberg, Rising Plague : The Global Threat from Deadly Bacteria and our Dwindling Arsenal to Fight Them. Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 2009. 264 pages ; includes bibliographical references and index.

40 pages before the end of this 218 page book, the author revealed his association with the pharmaceutical industry. Up to that point, I believed everything he wrote about the infectious disease issue. However, when Spellberg stated that he gets paid to make speeches at pharmaceutical industry seminars, owns part of a drug company, works in academia as a health scientist, and is a member of an organization that gathers data for the drug companies I became angry. He is not the most impartial person, is he? Earlier in the book, he made a case for the need to create more antiobiotics in order to fight the antibiotic-resistent strains of bacteria, such as MRSA. I don't know if I can even believe that this is necessary given his "confession."

Spellberg says that the drug companies do not want to invest the time and money in creating this type of a drug because they cannot make tons of money off of them. Drugs that treat symptoms of diseases that cannot be cured will make them more money because people will need to take these drugs for the rest of their lives, whereas antibiotics can cure a person in 10 days and then the drug is no longer needed. Spellberg would like Congress to provide financial incentives through legislation to modify the FDA Orphan Drug Program so that companies will be encouraged to create these drugs. An orphan drug is one whose market is too small to be of interest to drug companies.

Concerning the current resistant strains of bacteria, Spellberg says that the doctors who over-prescribe antibiotics cannot be blamed but toward the end of the book he says that they are to blame. He thinks that the top antibiotics should only be prescribed after lesser forms of antibiotics have failed and that this will prevent the speed at which bacteria become antibiotic resistant. This is not the only time Spellberg speaks out of both sides of his mouth. He contraindicates himself several times throughout the book.

Spellberg was heavily biased in favor of the drug companies throughout the book but was even more than biased in favor of the industry in the last 40 pages. Here he blamed everyone but the industry for the nation's healthcare problem. He does not address the issue of people not being able to afford their prescriptions or why so many Congressman think the prices are the problem. He states that prescription drug prices are not what drives up the cost of healthcare but that heroic efforts at the end of a person's life is what is sucking the life out the system. He indirectly states that these heroic efforts should not be made because folks should understand when someone is about to die and accept it. Death is a part of life.

And by the way, in case you didn't know, the cost of prescriptions is only 1.4% of the cost of healthcare in the U. S. I cannot believe this statement. Spellberg also states that if these drugs weren't working, no one would buy them. The drug companies should not be blamed if people cannot afford the drugs. After all, it is the person's decision to buy them. They don't have to buy them, he advises.

Spellberg also believes that the pharmaceutical industry needs more financial assistance from the government before they agree to come up with new antibiotics. Spellberg also states that the pharmaceutical companies should not be blamed or even sued when a drug is found to have a negative impact on the public. Rather, the FDA should be held responsible and the party that should be sued by the public, not the drug companies. Spellberg further says that the companies should not have to go through so many preliminary trials before a drug is approved. The FDA causes the companies to provide burdensome proof of a drug's effectiveness and safety. Spellberg states that until a drug is being used by the public, no one really knows what the contraindications will be for that drug. He would like a cap on damages from post-marketing antibiotic injury through a communal insurance policy offered by the federal government.

Finally, Spellberg states that it is wrong for Americans to be angry that the drugs they need are cheaper in foreign countries. Instead, we should view these cheaper prices as a form of foreign aid. We are subsidizing healthcare for the rest of the world, something a superpower should be happy to do.

This book made me angry and I do not recommend that any one read it.

-- Notes by VS