NEW DRUGS FOR OLD: They're only good for the drug companies

Drug companies garner most of their profits from the sale of new products. They are launched with a triumphal spin, and a promise that they are far better than the previous generation of drugs. And human nature, being what it is, wants to believe the hype.
In reality, of course, they are no better, and only a little different from the ones they are replacing. The main difference is that they are usually far more powerful, which also means they come with an even greater risk of causing a serious adverse reaction.
The myth of the ‘new’ drugs has been highlighted by two psychiatrists, who point out that the effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs has not improved in the last 50 years when the first, chlorpromazine, was launched.
By 1980 20 antipsychotics were available, and, by the end of that decade, clozapine was introduced. This, according to Rohan Ganguli and Martin Strassnig at Pittsburgh University, remains the ‘gold standard’ that has never been bettered, despite the scores of newer drugs that have appeared since.
Nonetheless, health authorities often recommend newer varieties, even though medical trials consistently discover that they are no more effective, or safer, than the older generations.
Such is the ‘progress’ of medicine, which is driven exclusively by marketing departments while the only real beneficiaries are the shareholders of the drug companies.