50 Percent of People Who Take Drugs See No Benefit

The most surprising assertion in the New York Times' excellent piece on the genetic role in the effectiveness of medication is this: "Experts say that most drugs, whatever the disease, work for only about
half the people who take them. Not only is much of the nation’s
approximately $300 billion annual drug spending wasted, but countless patients are being exposed unnecessarily to side effects."
Who is to blame? Big pharma or an unfortunate combination of genes? The Times piece suggests that it's a little bit of both, or more precisely, a big honking piece of both. Drug makers, the piece reminds us, "can be reluctant to develop or encourage tests that may limit the use of their drugs." Insurance companies too, share some blame, even though they stand to benefit down the road. Go figure.
Read more on the promise of tailoring drugs to the genes that will work with them in the New York Times