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Two newspapers recently published editorials related to medication drugs. Summaries appear below.

• New York Times: “The explosion in the use of three anti-anemia drugs to treat cancer and kidney patients illustrates much that is wrong in the American pharmaceutical marketplace,” a Times editorial states. According to the Times, sales of the drugs — Aranesp and Epogen from Amgen and Procrit from Johnson & Johnson — have been “propelled by the two companies paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in so-called rebates.” The Times states, “It seems likely that these financial incentives have led to wider use and the prescribing of higher doses than medically desirable.” According to the Times, the “surest way to slow the overprescribing is to stop the rebates.” The editorial concludes, “Federal laws already bar drug companies from paying doctors to prescribe medicines in pill form. That prohibition should be extended to injected and intravenous medicines” (New York Times, 5/14).
  
• Washington Post: Legal settlements that allow brand-name pharmaceutical companies to pay off generic drug makers to delay market introduction of generic drugs “rob[s]” U.S. consumers of “potentially huge savings,” a Post editorial states. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and other lawmakers have introduced legislation (S 316) to prohibit the practice, the editorial notes, adding that the bill is “a long-overdue reform that Congress should pass soon, regardless of the pharmaceutical industry’s strong opposition.” The editorial concludes, “Otherwise, Americans will not benefit from the competitive generic drug approval system that Congress tried to establish” (Washington Post, 5/13).
  

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