E-drug: Generic omeprazole (6)
------------------------------------------------------------
It will take a long message to give you ''all about omeprazole'', but
let me briefly mention:
Omeprazole is coming off patent in many countries, but
AstraZeneca has ongoing legal suits in most of these
countries. I think a look at their website or a google search
(www.google.com) will give much information.
As many countries do not yet observe patents, generic products can
be found. AstraZeneca has questioned the quality of some of
these, an article was published here:
Karlsson A, Lindqvist J et al. An investigation of the pharmaceutical
quality of non-Astra authorised omeprazole products - a
comparative study. Int Pharm J 1996;10(6): 210-3.
As mentioned by others, there are many me-too products on the
market, patented in countries that observe patents, in others
probably also available from more than one manufacturer.
In order to avoid parallel import from Southern Europe to Northern
Europe, Astra launched Losec MUPS which was a slightly different
formulation. This was registered only in Northern Europe and
Losec was removed from the market here, but kept in Southern
Europe. Because it could not be regarded as bio-equivalent with
Losec, the regulatory authorities in Northern Europe could not
permit parallel import of Losec any more. (If, as AstraZeneca
claims, Losec MUPS is a better product, they deny people in the
South access to a better drug....)
AstraZeneca has done the following to keep their market share and
Prevent competition:
1) start legal actions
2) introduce esomeprazole which is one of the isomers of
omeprazole.
A Swdish pharmaceutical journal has covered the topic extensively
(''the ulcer war''), but unfortunately, it is written in Swedish.
See also this old E-drug message
http://old.healthnet.org/programs/e-drug-hma/e-
drug.199802/msg00046.html
Regards
Kirsten
Kirsten Myhr, MScPharm, MPH
Head, Eastern Region Drug Information Centre
RELIS Ost
Ulleval University Hospital
N-0407 OSLO
Tel: +47 23 01 64 11 Fax: +47 23 01 64 10
kirsten.myhr@relis.ulleval.no (w)
myhr@online.no (h)
www.relis.no
[both Losec and Losec MUPS are available in UK - TD]
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html