Follow The Money

Look beneath the purported story theme of testing ADHD meds to protect the lives of those taking them--http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204336104577094624185636102.html?KEYWORDS=adderall--and you will find one explanation for why some drugs cost more than others and how the big pharma companies stand to profit while disposable income of medication users goes down. The FDA should not be practicing medicine. Yet, the FDA is doing just that when it arbitrarily halts the production of entire classes of drugs because there is a suspicion that some of those taking these medicines could be harmed by them. It is up to the physicians treating these people & prescribing these medicines to decide which people might be at risk. But wait--they ALREADY DID THAT when they took a history before prescribing these or any other meds as part of the patients' treatment plans. So, why is the government taking its usual "one-size-fits-all" approach in shutting down supply of these drugs? In the case of Adderall XR, for example, it appears to be a case of "nobody goes there anymore--it's too crowded." In other words, because students and others needing to improve alertness and concentration (how they got scripts is another question) have been taking Adderall in increasing numbers, Adderall XR's popularity grew to the point where the Feds decided that too many people were benefitting from it. So, in their infinite wisdom, they left the supply of regular Adderall intact on drugstore shelves but choked off the supply of Adderall XR so no one could get it. Guess what happened. Patients lobbied their doctors to prescribe them the closest real (as opposed to generic) medication, in this case a newer (a.k.a. still under patent protection) drug called Vyvanse. The dosing is different as is its absorption--it's smoother in than Adderall by a tad less efficacious. What no doubt interested the drug companies manufacturing these drugs is that Adderall XR, an older drug no longer patent protected, costs patients a copay of $30. However, Vyvanse, a newer drug, costs users a $50 copay as a Class III medication. Neither the government or big pharma acknowledge that doctors prescribe these drugs based on the needs of individuals, not with a "take-two-of-these-and-call-me-in-the-morning" approach. Illness is routinely measured in large patient groups, but, if you have a disease, it's YOUR disease. Your response to it and subsequent treatment is for YOU, not an anonymous large patient population. Offering this nuanced approach to prescribing is one reason doctors go to school for all those years. So, until at least 2012, Adderall and other medicines in its and related classes will not be available to anyone who was using them. And, if you follow the money in the way I suggest, you will understand why.