July 27, 2007

'Prescribing by Numbers: Drugs and the Definition of Disease'

By NINA C. AYOUB

In October 1957, a top executive from Pfizer had some cautionary words at an annual meeting of U.S. drug manufacturers. In a sense, the industry had performed too well. Antibiotics had been so successful, they had effectively limited their own potential market. Something new was needed for long-term growth. The industry found that potential in a "logic of risk reduction," says Jeremy A. Greene, a fellow in the department of social medicine at Harvard Medical School and a resident at Brigham