Demonizing Drugs.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Health Care: Another day, another drug making bad news. This time it's a multiple sclerosis treatment, and it doesn't bode well for the pharmaceutical pipeline.

Right now, that pipeline is heavy with drugs that fight heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S., and stroke, the No. 3 killer after cancer.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America says that 146 of these life-saving and life-enhancing medicines are "now in development or in the final approval process."

How many of them will meet the same fate as Tysabri? The multiple sclerosis drug is being pulled from the market by Biogen Idec and Elan Corp. after one patient taking the medicine died and another developed serious central nervous system side effects.

Or Vioxx, taken off the market last year? Or Bextra and Celebrex, pain-relief drugs that might also be pulled?

Drug makers are a fat target for demonization. They make big profits, when successful. They have large marketing and advertising budgets. And they cling to their patents. That's enough to earn them the wrath of the left wing of American politics.

But where would we be without the drug industry? We'd be a lot sicker and there would be far fewer of us.