E-DRUG: GlaxoSmithKline pledges cheap medicine for world's poor (4)
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It is worth noting that the 75% reduction in prices GSK has announced for
the 50 poorest countries, is based on the prices in the US and the UK. They are both high-income countries and have the highest retail prices on patented medicines of all industrialised countries. In the UK the price drops, but only for generics, considerably after patent expiry, more than the 75% offered by GSK. The generics are even cheaper than in poor countries (data to be published).
Two examples of GSK products in the UK which are no longer patented and there are generic copies (but very few) in the market:
Lamictal (lamotrigine) 100 mg 56 pack costs BP 59.86; the generic costs BP 5.59. Amoxil (amoxicillin, a very old antibiotic): 500 mg 21 pack costs BP 7.19; the generic costs BP 1.37. Source: British National Formulary.
So if the 75% discount is on the retail price of GSKs own product, I am not impressed. And note that, as we already know, the patent owner does not participate in the competition.
Ms Kirsten Myhr
Head (MScPharm)
RELIS Drug Info & Pharmacovigilance Centre
Oslo University Hospital, Ulleval
OSLO, Norway
myhr[at]online.no