News Alert: Anemia drugs cost taxpayers billions, but benefits were overstated, deadly effects overlooked
Thursday, July 19, 2012 10:06:42 PM NEWS ALERT Anemia drugs cost taxpayers billions, but benefits were overstated, deadly effects overlooked For years, a trio of anemia drugs known as Epogen, Procrit and Aranesp ranked among the best-selling prescription drugs in the United States, generating more than $8 billion a year for two companies, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson. But a Washington Post investigation shows that the benefits of the drugs — including "life satisfaction and happiness," according to the FDA-approved label — had to be retracted and that potentially lethal side effects, such as cancer and strokes, were overlooked. Millions of patients were subjected to dangerous doses that might have had little advantage. The multibillion-dollar rise and fall of the anemia drugs illustrates how the economic incentives embedded in U.S. health care can make the system not only inefficient, but po