European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 7, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes saturday. June 7. 1980 Tom Wicker Carter refection of debate May be Nightmare san Francisco a press Serelar s fantasy a be a president s Nightmare. Ai least that s what s by Jody Powell s Ihil president car tar will nut Lake in a presidential Campaign debate with Kep John Anderson by Sas Powell it s Only a Fantas thai Anderson could be elected As 1 a. like ice to ts8we tres Little us mme James Kilpatrick Lef s have More sense in regulation of drugs Washington let me pose a rhetorical question is there a Point at which consumer Protection becomes consumer harm i am certain there is and i suspect that Point May be accurately charted in the of pharmaceutical drugs. The experience of or. Donald p. Griffith and aha is instructive. Or. Griffith is n urologist attached to the Daylor College of Medicine in Houston. When i try to comprehend his professional papers on and bacterial enzyme areas i fight a lost cause. Kidney stones Are off my beat but bureaucracy and Law arc not. And because of the Way in which bureaucracy and Law operate in the Field of new drugs a number of sick human beings arc Likely to suffer needlessly. Infection induced urinary stones. Or. Griffith notes arc relatively uncommon. Columns comments there arc probably fewer than 100,000 patients with this particular problem in the country but persons with spinal Cord injury notably paraplegics Are especially susceptible to the disease. Many patients can be adequately treated through antibiotics and surgery but a Small percentage of them cannot tolerate conventional therapy. They face a chronic downhill course that has been termed Stone cancer by some clinicians. The condition is both painful and progressive. In the course of their research on renal afflictions. Or. Griffith and his associates investigated acid aha. Their studies indicate that aha taken orally effectively inhibits the formation of urinary bacterial stones their findings were reported a year ago in the journal of urology. Of 48 patients treated with aha. A significant number experienced significant Relief. The Baylor urologists encouraged by their studies got in touch with Mure than 30 . And Loman inane would inc be Inu i sick in get Ting aha approved for this use alas no. The manufacturers were polite they were even enthusiastic but in every instance or. Griffith writes corporate officials lauded the apparent usefulness of the drug but declined to become the reasons were not obscure. The projected Market for aha is Small Patent Protection is poor and the expense of meeting requirements of the food and drug administration is monumental. Baylor s Legal counsel raised other warnings. An expanded clinical trial would subject the College to half a million dollars a year in potential costs of product liability Protection. The Prospect of a lawsuit filed by a paraplegic patient and tried before a sympathetic jury 19 a Prospect that gives defense counsel the willies. The upshot is that aha probably will have to be denied to patients who could Benefit from it. Sunup proved drugs cannot lawfully be prescribed. Or. Griffith is understandably concerned. What do Consumers want he asks. Do they want Protection that is so com plete that innovation is stifled want it or not. That is the kind of Protection we arc getting. The pharmaceutical manufacturers association recently placed the typical costs of developing and Market ing a new drug at sd2 million. The process takes six to eight ears to win i a approval. As a consequence the discovery and introduction of i s. Drugs steadily decline in the five tear period of 1973-77. The i a reports there were 339 drug discoveries worldwide the is. Was the country of first introduction for Only is. Though it was the count of discover for 74 of those drugs. While the . Continues to rank first in discoveries s the pm it ranks ninth in this is what tends to accomplish. In its Eal to avoid misjudge pm misjudgment of the dimensions of thalidomide the bureaucracy gets super cautious. Nothing very visible is Likely to result from saying no to a new drug application. A few asthmatics a suffer a few epileptics May go into needless convulsions and a few paraplegics with urinary stones May die but Consumers Are there is bound to be a Mure a of getting it drug a Gul Alinn an Independent. The Only lamas in sight however is Carter s apparent belief that he can get away with refusing to debate Anderson when Ronald Reagan the uncrowned Republican nominee already has agreed to do so. With or without Jimmy Carter. And the reason the president wants to Frucce out Anderson is not really that he s a candidate of no consequence quite the of fact a new California poll completed in mid May depicts the Illinois Independent As both a serious contender in his own right and a mortal threat to Carter. Voters in the most populous slate asked their Choice in a three Way race gave Reagan a Lead of 39 percent and put Carter 28 per cent and Anderson 26 percent in a Virtu Al dead heal for second. That s a six Point Rise for Anderson since a similar poll taken in april. But that was t All the bad news for the while House. Of that 26 percent who favored the Independent candidate exactly half or 13 percent of the total would be voting for Carter in a two Man ice. Only six percentage Points of the Anderson total came from persons who would Back Reagan against the president the other seven Points came from those undecided in a Reagan Carter matchup. The poll respondents moreover rated Anderson More satisfactory As a potential president 53 percent than Carter 45 53 percent in fact rated Carter unsatisfactory. Registered voters gave Anderson a 52 percent favourable rating with 53 percent of democrats viewing him favourably and 48 percent of republicans. So did 59 percent in fantasy and few of the Georgia Arndtg As political realists around Jimmy it tire arc Likely to be among them. And while in in True that California is a stale in Muty of tailored for the Anderson f also a stale that has Ofinn been re live of the National electorate. Carter lost California twice in 1976,c to Jerry Brown and again to Gerald f and he is unlikely to carry it against i Gan next fall with or without John an son in the race. The number of democrats none of the above or no Prefi when Given a Chance should already major worry for an incumbent Demoe president. In the four May 27 primaries example 8 percent of democrats whom to the polls in Kentucky. 18 percent us Kansas. 33 percent in Nevada and ii cent in Idaho voted an uncommitted lion rather than for Carter or Kennedy. That Means that of inc 709,796craps who Voled in four slates these Tonj in nearly Complete returns114,418 or 16 percent refused to vote for either a Dent cratic president or his Only avowed longer. That display of disaffection follow three earlier May primaries in Texas tb1 pcs Sec and North Carolina in which one every seven democrats who Voled Chota no preference line about the same rate u on May 27. F when it is considered that Carter is no widely thought to be inc certain democratic nominee most of those withheld Democrat a in votes can plausibly be seen As protein against his renomination. And every one of them plus those yet to be registered in Call j f i to i 1 a a 5sof Carter supporters and 60 percent of fornia and elsewhere has to be considered a persons who called themselves Middle of potential Anderson vote if the expected the Carlsr Reagan Anderson Campaign Matetti those who Don t think that adds up to a Alizes this fall a formidable candidacy arc the ones engaging
