Memorizing Things… If you’re in med school right now, or even pre-med, it can be a daunting task to learn medications. The names are hard to pronounce and the list seems never ending. Part of the reason it seems that way though, is because it’s true. There are thousands of drugs with new drugs on the market all of the time. So, for the purposes of this article, we will focus on only two drugs to try and keep things simple. However, it is not just the cool facts in the next paragraph about a new drug that I want you to pay attention to, but keep reading as I tie together why this is relevant for all of us now and in the future. The Facts You may or may not have seen commercials for Humira (adalimumab) on TV. It is often advertised to treat Rheumatoid Arthritis but can be used to treat other disorders as well, such as Crohn’s Disease (someone close to me has this condition). Humira, according to Reuter’s, rakes in about 13 billion dollars a year. That is enough to pay off my med school debt about 65,000 times. What’s the big deal (besides that I could use that money)? It was just recently announced that Eli Lilly has come out with a drug, Baricitinib, that in late stage trials seems to be more effective than Humira. Also, Humira has to be injected, much like an epi-pen, and Eli Lilly’s new medication only has to be taken orally once a day. Why does all of this matter? The main point of this article is give some insights into the rapidly changing world of medicine and how it affects us as students and practicing physicians. Our professors harp on us all of the time that going into medicine involves lifelong learning. It can be difficult to reconcile and wrap our heads around the fact that what we learn as fact today may be fiction, or at least not as relevant, tomorrow. This makes medicine frustrating and exciting at the same time. As we move along our medical careers we hope that medication we used to use or methods we use to use become outdated. This means that we are helping our patients to get better faster and really making an impact on the world around us. Moral of the Story Keep your head up when you’re learning about long lists of medications and work to understand the themes of how they work. This will benefit you greatly as new drugs are created because you will have a true understanding of how these drugs act, and why one has proved to be better than another. source
