text_1: Pfizer: New cancer pill gives hope, new strategy
text_2: The story paraphrases sources saying the approval of Xalkori (Pfizer’s brand name for a pill containing crizotinib) “proves the value of precisely targeting rare diseases linked to gene variants.” It is not clear if that phrase refers to the value for patients or company shareholders, because the next paragraph says this drug “epitomizes drugmakers’ new strategy of developing very expensive but effective medicines for relatively few patients to replace the blockbusters for the masses now getting competition from generic drugs.” This story would have been better if it had focused on how the FDA has decided to offer some novel combinations of tumor gene tests and therapies to selected patients based on suggestive results from small, preliminary trials, and then requiring applicants to complete conventional randomized controlled trials in order to keep the drug on the    market. It should also have given readers some of the context available in documents posted online by the FDA, Pfizer and other sources about the state of the science regarding this drug. On the plus side, the story makes clear that this drug is meant for a small and very specific group of patients. It also is clear about the high cost of the therapy. People with often-deadly diseases such as advanced lung cancer are hungry for new treatments. Journalists have a responsibility to put preliminary suggestions of progress toward new treatments in the proper context. In this case, the story should have been more clear about tentative nature of the evidence supporting use of a new drug in certain patients and that continued use all depends on the results of trials that are still underway.