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Letters to the Editor
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Patents and generics
Reply from
Frederic Girard, chief executive officer, Servier Laboratories
Ltd
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Consequences to the NHS of the switch
Mr H. Modi, MRPharmS
I wish to respond to the recent news article about the launch of Servier’s
perindopril arginine salt preparation (PJ, 29 March 2008, p352).
The switch of patients from the tert-butylamine salt that is available
generically
to the patent-protected arginine salt, raises important issues for patients
and the NHS.
Current UK sales for perindopril tert-butylamine salt are £100m per year.
Following patent expiry, the use of generic versions has generated considerable
savings to the NHS, and will continue to do so by price reductions and clawbacks
on generics’ reimbursements.
If the switching strategy by Servier, which includes changes via GP software
suppliers, is successful and prescriptions are mostly generated for arginine
salt, there will be little or no market for generic perindopril tert-butylamine
salt. This would remove competition, and commit valuable NHS resources for
a further long period.
Experience has shown that altering the appearance of packaging and tablet strength
causes confusion among patients and wastes health professionals’ time
for no good reason or cost-saving to the NHS.
This action of Servier has no clinical or financial benefit to anyone except
Servier, which makes the pharmaceutical industry’s rhetoric of wanting
to work with NHS sound rather hollow.
Has Modi
Superintendent Pharmacist and Managing Director
Jardines (UK) Ltd
Milton Keynes,
Buckinghamshire
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FREDERIC GIRARD, chief executive officer, Servier
Laboratories Ltd responds:
Perindopril was a discovery of Servier research.
Perindopril-based
products
have a substantial evidence base, having been used in such landmark studies
as PROGRESS, EUROPA, ASCOT and ADVANCE. Servier continues to support research
using perindopril-based products to decrease the mortality and morbidity
associated with cardiovascular disease, and even in orphan diseases
such as muscular dystrophy.
Generic perindopril erbumine (tert-butylamine) has been available in the
UK since July 2007 and generic products represent 90 per cent of perindopril
supplies
today. Our changes to Coversyl proprietary products are independent of the
generic market. The generic tariff price has remained relatively high and
thus has not
produced the “considerable” savings alleged by the author.
We refute
any allegation made by the author that we have acted inappropriately when
notifying information providers and healthcare professionals of our
intended changes
to our Coversyl products. We have been open and clear in all our communication.
Perindopril arginine is a discovery of Servier research that improves the
stability of the active ingredient and therefore increases product shelf-life
and enables
consistent quality all around the world, whatever the climate conditions.
The launch of the Coversyl arginine products is part of a global strategy
that
has already proven to be well managed by Servier as evidenced by their smooth
introduction
in a number of other countries including Australia, South Africa, Denmark,
Netherlands and Ireland.
Servier UK (as the subsidiary of the Servier Research Group) continues to
maintain its investment in UK personnel and UK research as a responsible
partner of
the NHS and the UK economy. Servier regularly invests more than 25 per cent
of its
annual turnover in research and development, which is significantly higher
than the industry average.
Servier develops truly innovative drugs to meet
unmet medical
need and has launched two true innovations in the recent past with a third
anticipated to be launched in early 2009 (subject to regulatory approval). |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal