A majority — albeit a slim one — of Americans don't want Congress to adopt legislation (known as the 21st Century Cures Act) that would streamline the new drug approval process in order to get specialty drugs to patients more quickly.
In a poll of 1,006 randomly selected adults by STAT, a health care news service, and Harvard University, researchers report that 58 percent said they opposed Congressional drug approval speed-up legislation. Another 38 percent supported such action.
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Men were much more in favor of speedy approval than women, by a 45 percent to 32 percent margin. High income respondents also favor speedy approval (44 percent) over the lower income ones (30 percent).
The poll also queried participants on speedy approval process legislation designed to bring new medical devices on the market. Here, there was a closer split: Exactly half oppose speeding up that process, with 45 percent in favor and 5 percent against.
The pollsters wanted to know if those surveyed thought speeding up the process would lead to higher drug prices. About four in 10 thought it would, the same number said it would have no impact, and about two in 10 thought it might lower the price.
Should the FDA be able to reject a new drug application if it thinks the drug is too spendy? Right now, it can't. Maybe it should, said 44 percent, while 49 percent said price shouldn't be a consideration.
Americans were much more aligned on the question of whether the FDA should approve a new drug that has been greenlit by a foreign nation, but not the U.S. Two-thirds of respondents didn't like that idea.
Moving from medicine to media and marketing, pollsters sought the opinion of participants on the matter of advertising prescription drugs on TV. "Ban it!" said 58 percent; 39 percent were OK with the ad campaigns.
However, a strong majority (76 percent) of those who said they considered taking a drug they saw advertised on TV said the ads "clearly told them what they needed to know about the possible risks or side effects the might experience if they were to take the drug."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
