The major role of clinicians in the discovery of off-label drug therapies
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine the role of clinicians in the discovery of off-label use of prescription drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Data Sources. Micromedex Healthcare Series was used to identify new uses of new molecular entities approved by the FDA in 1998, literature from January 1999-December 2003 was accessed through MEDLINE, and relevant patents were identified through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. DATA SYNTHESIS AND MAIN FINDING: A survey of new therapeutic uses for new molecular entity drugs approved in 1998 was conducted for the subsequent 5 years of commercial availability. During that period, 143 new applications were identified in a computerized search of the literature for the 29 new drugs considered and approved in 1998. Literature and patent searches were conducted to identify the first report of each new application. Authors of the seminal articles were contacted through an electronic survey to determine whether they were in fact the originators of the new applications. If they were, examination of article content and author surveys were used to explore if each new application was discovered through clinical practice that was independent of pharmaceutical company or university research (field discovery) or if the discovery was made by or with the involvement of pharmaceutical company or university researchers (central discovery). Eighty-two (57%) of the 143 drug therapy innovations in our sample were discovered by practicing clinicians through field discovery. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, the major role of clinicians in the discovery of new, off-label drug therapies has not been previously documented or explored. We propose that this finding has important regulatory and health policy implications.
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It is estimated that 57% of drug therapy innovations were discovered by practicing clinicians through field discovery.
“it is estimated that 57% of drug therapy innovations were discovered by practicing clinicians through field discovery (18).”
From DrugCentral 2023 extends human clinical data and integrates veterinary drugs (2023) · cites this paper as [18]
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- Authors
- DeMonaco, H. J., Ali, A., & von Hippel, E.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- DeMonaco, Harold J.
- Venue
- Pharmacotherapy The Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006-03
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 323-332
- ISSN
- 0277-0008 (ISSN-L)
- 1875-9114
- OpenAlex
- W3123622630
- Cited by
- 142
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 6.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- Pharmacotherapy The Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Warwick Research Archive Portal (University of Warwick) (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Pharmaceutical studies and practices
- Keywords
- off-label drug use, new chemical entities, FDA-approved drugs, drug repurposing, clinical practice, pharmaceutical industry, university research
- MeSH terms
- Cosmetics, Dermatologic Agents, Drug Industry, Drug Labeling, Pharmaceutical Preparations, Humans, Physicians, Product Surveillance, Postmarketing, United States, United States Food and Drug Administration, Propofol, Drug Approval, Botulinum Toxins, Type A
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