# New drugs, women only???



## 17014 (Apr 13, 2005)

Hello I do not understand why pharma companies still develop IBS drugs for women only?? Yes, I know there twice more women than men with IBS. But even if 10% of the western population has IBS, there should be several million men around with this illness. And it should be easy thing to find enough men for clinical trials. Pharma companies should do clinical trials with 33.3% men and 66.6% women. That`s how it realy is in the world. But they don`t even care about it. It`s not fair. IBS IS NOT A WOMEN DISEASE. ÃŽt concerns both genders. I don`t want to pay out of my own pocket if new drugs will be avaliable. (Which, I guess, wont work for my visceral gut pain.)I realy hope I can fight IBS without those f... drugs.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I do not think it is on purpose.I do not think we understand gender differences in drug action enough to actually purposefully design a drug to only work in one gender.Before the mid 1990s drugs were tested on men only. Unless they actually couldn't use men in the study because they don't have the parts.In the mid 1990's it became apparent that some drugs that never made it through the pipeline because they don't work in men actually did work well in woman.So since the 1990's all drug trials MUST include both genders in the Phase II trials.Depending on who it works for at that level determines who they test it on for phase III (the big trials). If it didn't work on woman in Phase II they can't test it on woman in Phase III, just men. So it isn't some conspiracy to deny men and men only drugs for any given disease.I think they'd rather have a drug that works for everybody, but unfortunately IBS seems to have a lot of gender differences.I'm just hoping by the time my heart disease gets bad enough they will have developed drugs that work in woman. What I take now for blood pressure was never tested in woman. It seems to work well enough, but it really might not be optimal. I just have to hope for the best with most drugs.I guess we should go back to the old days where only men get drugs that work.







I know you don't really want that, but it seems that is the only thing that will make some men happy. Only drugs that work in men can be approved. If they only work in woman, then screw it, we do not need them. Had we been under the old rules there wouldn't be a Lotronex or Zelnorm at all.K.


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## overitnow (Nov 25, 2001)

> quote:Originally posted by Kathleen M.:I'm just hoping by the time my heart disease gets bad enough they will have developed drugs that work in woman.


For what it is worth, I received an e-mail from a stock-picking newsletter that mentioned the existance of a drug currently in Phase II, meant to remove plaque deposits. (Since I am not a subscriber, they didn't provide any further info on the developer.) Assuming it goes on to production, this may be of great help for all of us.Mark


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

That sounds cool!So far things are OK in the blood work other than blood pressure (CRP, triglycerides, cholesterol, etc). They did a really complete work up for this genetics and IBS study I enrolled in.The only abnormality was actually just a bit too low (but not clinically significant). The one that does the longterm blood sugar (can't pull the name off the top of my head) was just under the normal range so I don't have to worry about diabetes/prediabetes for while.We will see what changes after menopause. The blood pressure is bad enough to worry about right now. My Mom had a heart attack at 52 so I'm pretty interested in my various risk factors.Kathleen


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