Consumers stand to save billions of dollars in prescription drug costs
in the next few years as an unprecedented wave of expensive brand-name
medications come off patent, facing competition from far-cheaper
generic versions.

Four of the nation's 10 best-selling prescription medicines – treating
common ailments ranging from high cholesterol to asthma – are due to
lose patent protections starting this year through 2010. Never have so
many branded drugs, with annual sales of as much as $75 billion, lost
their patents in so brief a time, experts say.

The savings for consumers could be enormous. Unlike hospital or doctor
care, which are expensive but paid mostly by health insurance,
patients pay a relatively higher share of prescription drug costs out
of their own pockets. The high cost of brand-name drugs has driven
many Americans to import lower-cost versions from Canada and other
nations. Generics can cost as much as 80 percent less than branded
versions.

General Motors Corp., for example, said employees in its prescription
drug plan are paying 90 cents a pill for the generic version of
cholesterol-lowering Zocor, which lost its patent last month, compared
with as much as $4.50 for the branded version.

Users of rival cholesterol-fighter Lipitor, the nation's top-selling
prescription medication whose patent doesn't expire until 2011, could
also save by switching to generic Zocor.

The generic versions generally offer no loss in quality and
effectiveness, medical experts say.

"For the vast majority of patients, generics work just like the brand
drugs," said Debra Judelson, a Beverly Hills, Calif., cardiologist.

Generic drugs have been around for decades and their share of
prescriptions filled have grown steadily over the years, accounting
for just over half of all prescription drugs sold today versus a
quarter two decades ago. That share could rise beyond 60 percent by
the end of next year, said Ron Fontanetta, a healthcare specialist at
Towers Perrin, a human resources consulting firm.

The upcoming surge of generics stems from an innovation boom in the
early 1990s, when giant drug companies such as Merck & Co. and Pfizer
Inc. launched blockbuster drugs.

By law, patents last about 20 years, but companies spend many of those
years testing and getting government approvals for their new drugs.
The creators are typically left with between 12 and 14 years of
exclusive rights to sell the drugs, usually at high prices, to recoup
the enormous costs in inventing and developing the treatments.

Many of those patents from the 1990s innovation wave are now beginning
to expire.

A few days after Merck's cholesterol-fighter Zocor, the nation's No. 2
selling prescription drug, lost its patent last month, Pfizer's
antidepressant Zoloft, ranked No. 7, lost its patent. The patent for
Pfizer's high blood pressure medicine Norvasc expires next year.

Express Scripts Inc., one of the country's largest managers of
pharmacy health benefits, estimates the potential overall savings from
generics this year alone is $24.7 billion.

That is unlikely to make a major dent in the country's overall
escalating healthcare bill, at $2.6 trillion.

But for many patients' health budgets, the savings can be huge.
Patients with health insurance pay as much as a quarter of
prescription drug costs out of their own pockets, compared with 20
percent for dental, 16 percent for physician services and 7 percent
for hospitals.

How much consumers will save depends on how aggressively health plans
and care providers steer patients to generics.

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs

# posted by Network @ 10:28 PM