Merck was in trouble. In 2002, the pharmaceutical giant was falling behind its rivals in sales. Even worse, patents on five blockbuster drugs were about to expire, which would allow cheaper generics to flood the market. The company hadn’t introduced a truly new product in three years, and its stock price was plummeting.
In interviews with the press, Edward Scolnick, Merck’s research director, laid out his battle plan to restore the firm to preeminence. Key to his strategy was expanding the company’s reach into the antidepressant market, where Merck had lagged while competitors like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline created some of the best-selling drugs in the world. “To remain dominant in the future,” he told Forbes, “we need to dominate the central nervous system.”
His plan hinged on the success of an experimental antidepressant codenamed MK-869. Still in clinical trials, it looked like every pharma executive’s dream: a new kind of medication that exploited brain chemistry in innovative ways to promote feelings of well-being. The drug tested brilliantly early on, with minimal side effects, and Merck touted its game-changing potential at a meeting of 300 securities analysts.
Behind the scenes, however, MK-869 was starting to unravel.
Wired (thanks, Tiram)
I think that one of the reasons that Placebo drugs are becoming more effective, is due to more people becoming hypochondriac. The media tell us every day about a new illness of one kind or another, and more people are coming down with man flu.
I wanna get me some of those placebo things, they cure anything!
Bought a Placebo album once… turned out it was a blank CD.
Richard Bandler talked about wanting to actually sell pills called Placebo, “works x out of 10, so take 11 just in case” or some such. But he found out that your not allowed to market something named that (or so he claimed he does have a thing for saying and doing wild things to see what sort of effect they have).
Has anyone every studied whether or not sugar pills are in fact a wonder drug that cures everything?
The only way to find out for sure, is to try it yourself. Of course have someone help you with the experiment and give you two pills. One of those is the sugar pill and the other is not. Let your brain and body sort out which is the one that really works. It would be interesting would it not!
But then the placebo effect is a well documented, genuine effect. I imagine this is more true in therapy areas where patients are making an emotional change (e.g. depression, obesity in some cases). The effect of “I’m doing something to make myself better” can be a catalyst for change in itself. Most drugs that I have seen (and I work in the pharmaceutical world) show effectiveness vs. placebo, but the effectiveness of the placebo is also surprisingly good!
glad i sold my merck stock!
“we need to dominate the central nervous system.” has surely got to be one of the creepiest things ever said
Flapjack are you sure that was not a homeopathic CD?
It would be very hard to prove that placebos are getting stronger or weaker over time. A bit like asking if our rulers and the things they measured might all be getting bit longer or shorter together without any of us noticing.
A more likely explanation is that the drugs are not that effective. A few years ago pharmaceutical companies were hiring scientists to do studies, making them sign non-disclosure forms, then publishing studies that came out as they wanted and hiding those that did not. This of course created false positive results for the drug companies. Now the tests are real.
@ Dan. Sugar pills are indeed wonder drugs. Sugar pills are really marketed as such, they are called Ambrotose® Complex and are owned by Mannatech. They have some kind of ridiculus theory about polysaccharides on the cell membrane or something and they earn truckloads of money with it. I felt really naive when I read about that. They get away with it and people believe this shit!
I was surprised a few weeks ago when my doctor suggested homeopathic remedies. I told him I wanted proven medicine, not a placebo. Maybe I was too hasty…
The only reason I can think of is that the population on which the drug is tested has changed. Not entirely unplausible since those types of drugs are heavily marketed. Since everyone can feel down at times, it isn’t hard to convince someone that he’s depressed and needs medication. Now, lot’s of people who aren’t actually ill are taking drugs and become dependent on them even when they would have gotten better even without medication. Voila, changed placebo effect!
A stronger placebo effect could just be people having more faith in modern medicine. So much for all the medical scare stories then….
Very interesting piece and fascinating to learn how placebos began. We do sometimes need outside factors and people to convince us we can get through, although we probably do have the means to help ourselves, we just don’t have the strength.
Pharmaceutical companies are the devil anyway. If we had more exercise, stayed mentally and physically occupied and made our own happy chemicals, we wouldn’t need the plastic ones. And when we use them, our body stops producing them thinking there is enough in teh system, so it’s a vicious circle anyway – in fact it’s worse.
It seems to me that the increase in the placebo effect may in some way be connected with the evolution of mankind. Over time the brain has evolved into a more useful organ, maybe it’s just that we use more of it now than we used to. Part of that evolution might include more control over the bodies functions, albeit at a subconscious level. So now, when a doctor tells you this is a new drug that will affect your condition, it does so more readily because you subconscious has more control over the brain and its functions. Then again this could all be crap!