My perception is that the FDA's on the hook if they promote a drug that turns out not so safe/effective, and CDC's on the hook proportional to how much damage the flu wreaks. In which case I'd expect the FDA to be extremely conservative about promoting it, and the CDC to push anything with even a marginal effect, no matter other costs.
Why the CDC and FDA Are Telling You Two Different Things About Flu Drugs
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Re: Why the CDC and FDA Are Telling You Two Different Things About Flu Drugs
#22I have worked in the Biotech industry and worked with both the FDA and CDC.
The CDC and FDA have separate missions. The CDC tries to manage diseases once local authorities become overwhelmed. They maintain the Strategic National Stockpile. The SNS is a stockpile of different drugs, not enough for everyone, but enough to hopefully contain an outbreak. Our particular vaccine was FDA approved, and purchased for the SNS. The CDC also may purchase drugs that have not yet been FDA approved (depending on the political climate).
The FDA is the regulatory agency that polices, in this article's case, drugs. They monitor the clinical trials, and manufacturing process of the drugs (gmp-good manufacturing process). The FDA makes sure that drug companies do not exaggerate the efficacy of their products.
So it is not really that surprising that an agency that monitors and manages diseases would recommend drugs, while the agency that monitors and manages drugs would point to drug efficacy first.
Re: Why the CDC and FDA Are Telling You Two Different Things About Flu Drugs
#23>The CDC released figures Thursday showing that this season’s influenza vaccine is only about 23 percent effective Yikes, is it normally that low? I looked up a quick figure for 2013, and it was 60% effectiveness.
It's usually close to 40% effective but it's generally nowhere near 75%+
Re: Why the CDC and FDA Are Telling You Two Different Things About Flu Drugs
#24Tamiflu is $130? I was prescribed Tamiflu last year and a course cost me 1/3rd of that at the first drug store I walked into. I'm in Australia. Can't say if it really worked or not.
Tamiflu is $130 in the US. Medications in the US tend to be stupidly expensive.
Re: Why the CDC and FDA Are Telling You Two Different Things About Flu Drugs
#25Tamiflu is $130? I was prescribed Tamiflu last year and a course cost me 1/3rd of that at the first drug store I walked into. I'm in Australia. Can't say if it really worked or not.
Your government is subsidizing a large amount of the cost:
Re: Why the CDC and FDA Are Telling You Two Different Things About Flu Drugs
#26I think one aspect of disease management that the CDC probably (I don't have direct proof) cares about more than most is logistics. Specifically, the companies and processes needed to produce and distribute flu vaccines and drugs in volumes sufficient for national response.
This sort of infrastructure is very expensive and time-consuming to create--way longer than a flu strain takes to propagate, or an individual vaccine takes to formulate.
In the back of everyone's mind is the 1918 flu, and the possibility for a similarly deadly (or more deadly) version to develop today. It's possible and essentially unpredictable. If it were to happen, we would need to have that vaccine/drug infrastructure ready to go.
So: get your flu vaccine every year, even though it might not be super effective. Take Tamiflu even though it might not help much with a typical flu. Why? To keep those businesses and factories around for another year, in case we really need them.