Senior Pharmaceutical Executive Goes Public with Industry Open Secret for First Time:

“Drugs for Alzheimer’s disease work in fewer than one in three patients, whereas those for cancer are only effective in a quarter of patients. Drugs for migraines, for osteoporosis, and arthritis work in about half the patients, Dr Roses said. Most drugs work in fewer than one in two patients mainly because the recipients carry genes that interfere in some way with the medicine, he said.

‘The vast majority of drugs – more than 90 per cent – only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people,’ Dr Roses said. ‘I wouldn’t say that most drugs don’t work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50 per cent of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don’t work in everybody.’

Some industry analysts said Dr Roses’s comments were reminiscent of the 1991 gaffe by Gerald Ratner, the jewelry boss, who famously said that his high street shops are successful because they sold ‘total crap’. But others believe Dr Roses deserves credit for being honest about a little-publicized fact known to the drugs industry for many years.” —CommonDreams