ELDERLY: Give 'em the drug, but don't let them test it first

The trouble is that drug companies never test the safety of their drugs on the elderly, and nobody tests for the chemical cocktail from multiple prescribing on anyone. Take, as an example, the treatment of diabetes. It is estimated that it will afflict 48 million elderly people around the world by 2030. And what is the cut-off age for participants in clinical trials of drug treatments? 53.

In reality, of course, drug companies would never dream of recruiting someone as old as 53. Instead they're on the look-out for strapping young medical students who are under 25 years of age. One study has discovered that fewer than five per cent of medical studies feature older people. One problem, say researchers, is that the elderly are already taking quite a few drugs, and the chances of nasty side effects - even death - are high as a result. The last thing the research team want is for their drug to be blamed when it was another drug that caused the death all along.

Apologists believe that the elderly aren't recruited to trials because researchers are 'daunted' by the high maintenance of the elderly who would have lots of bothersome questions, fail to turn up for screening, or even forget to take the drug they're testing.

Far better that young people test the drug, 'prove' its safety, and then give it to the elderly who've got to die of something one day anyway.