DTB condemns brand extensions
Tactics used by pharmaceutical manufacturers to extend the profitability of their branded products are thwarting prescribers' efforts to save the NHS money, the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin warned last week (2006;44:73).
Product changes used to extend the profitability of products nearing
the end of their patent life rarely benefit patients, the DTB insists.
“This so-called lifecycle management of branded products can involve
changes in the formulation, the combination of two or more drugs, or
the use
of metabolites or isomeric forms of existing drugs, which are then heavily
promoted, often at a premium price, as new products with unique benefits
for patients,” it says.
The DTB examined a number of products that have undergone such changes
over recent years. “At best, such strategies waste NHS money. At
worst, they force unnecessary change on patients on established treatment,
encourage widespread use of medicines with limited safety data, and waste
the time of NHS staff who have to deal with the change,” its review
concludes.
Prescribers need to be aware of these strategies to manipulate their
prescribing, the DTB says. And they need to question the claimed value
of new products.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has a part to
play in minimising such changes, according to the DTB. “Only through
a more critical assessment of products … to include comparison with
established treatment options rather than just placebo, can the introduction
of new medicines be led more by the needs of patients than by those of
industry,” the bulletin warns.
Richard Ley, head of media relations at the Association of the British
Pharmaceutical Industry, commented: “Changes to formulations which
mean a patient can take a medicine a few times a week rather than four
times a day can make an enormous difference to an individual patient,
but the authors have completely ignored patients’ perspectives.” |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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