NEW pharmaceuticals are in short supply these days. That is partly because firms are often forced to halt the development of promising compounds when disturbing side-effects emerge during clinical trials. Just 21 new products made it onto the European market in 2010, along with some generics and niche treatments. In contrast new recreational drugs are proliferating. Some 24 novel compounds were detected in 2009 by the Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, a Lisbon-based outfit funded by the European Union. The figure rose to 41 in 2010; a further 20 appeared in the first four months of 2011.
Britons are especially fond of psychoactive substances. Ten adults in every 1,000 has a drug problem, the highest ratio in Europe. The rehabilitation clinics that serve them specialise in treating heroin and crack-cocaine addition.
