meaning …
Forbesby Matthew Herper04/06/2011
Geraldine Ferraro died from the rare blood cancer multiple myeloma on Mar. 26 after an 11-year battle. Breakthrough medicines kept the former congresswoman alive, but by 2007 she was worrying about their cost. The medicine she was taking at the end of her life cost 16 times more than the one she took when she was first diagnosed. That reflects the transformation of the drug business over the last decade: from pills taken by millions of people to expensive medicines taken by very small numbers of people. This strategy maintains earnings in the face of fewer new drugs. In November Lipitor, the last branded drug among the 15 most used medicines in the U.S., goes off patent, marking the end of the blockbuster era.hat tip to Jamzo…
and …
note that there are no psychiatric drugs on that top ten list
so …
It’s possible that some of the insanity of the PHARMA invasion of Medicine may finally be abating.
And speaking of insanity, Gluten Intolerance May Not Exist…
Uh…I think the overprescribing has simply moved to generics.
But yeah, currently Big Pharma is not raking it in like they were.
Next stop, insanely expensive but ineffective (as we will find out eventually) drugs to stave off Alzheimer’s. Everyone will want to take them prophylactically for years. Adverse effects will be indistiguishable from the disease they are supposed to prevent. Branded adjunct drugs will be an additional income stream. Etc.
Alto,
Cynicism noted and sometimes shared. But the DTC ads, journal ads, KOL pay-offs, and rep detailing ceases and that’s a big deal. As for Alzheimer’s, point well taken, Hopefully with all the bruhaha these days, there will be more oversight up front instead of “closing the barn door after the cows have already gotten out,” You see overprescribing as MD driven rather than PHARMA driven. No sense litigating that point, We’ll see as things play out.
Lower prescription volume doesn’t mean less detailing. If you’re trying to sell an expensive watch, you might still run magazine ads for it. Same principal applies to super-expensive drugs. What is leading to less detailing is that formularies are increasingly more important than doctors in deciding what drugs patients get.
Come on, Prozac is not on that list?!
Depressing!
As of 2009, Lexapro was the most prescribed antidepressant, with 28 million Rxs. http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/16/prozac-xanax-valium-business-healthcare-psychiatric-drugs_slide_4.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/us/among-experts-scrutiny-of-attention-disorder-diagnoses-in-2-and-3-year-olds.html
Top 200 Drugs of 2012 http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2013/July2013/Top-200-Drugs-of-2012