A major focus of President Obama’s healthcare reform initiatives included over $1B in funding for comparative effectiveness research — a discipline designed to study the most efficacious, efficient, and low-cost methods for healthcare delivery. Perhaps the most basic scenario is defined by the study of two different pharmacological therapies for the same problem. A trial published in this week’s JAMA states, however, that relatively few studies were devoted to this research modality, a cornerstone of Obama’s pledge to research better ways to deliver healthcare more cheaply. Only a third of 328 studies published in six top medical journals from June 2008 through September 2009 met the definition of comparative effectiveness, according to the investigators.

Naturally pharma companies aren’t invested in such matters, with the majority of funding for CE trials paid for by public sources. Typical pharma-financed trials are usually designed to show positive results. Although the need for unbiased, pure research is high given Obama’s admirable concern for such resource deployments, the road to drug research using such models is a long one filled with roadblocks — as long as Pharma has a stake. Perhaps a better way to ensure greater adoption of this initiative is not only to earmark a steady stream of federal funds targeted at comparative effectiveness research, but also to compare newer treatments with longstanding existing modes of treatments (pharma or otherwise) whenever possible.

RELATED: House bill concerning CE [PDF] | Senate bill [PDF]

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