E-drug: Time of generic or pseudogeneric appearing on market
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Does Joel or anyone else know what the time scale is between a drug
losing its patent and a "pseudogeneric" or a proper generic version
appearing on the market? I am thinking of simvastatin, which has just
lost its patent in the UK and I wonder how long it will be before the
price will come down.
At the moment, there are very stringent guidelines to statin use in the
UK (which doctors follow almost religiously). These indications have
partly been drawn because of the high cost of the drugs and to some
extent they could be seen as health care rationing due to financial
constraints.
Recent (mostly publicly sponsored) megatrials show that the
indications for statins should be widened but until the price comes or
actually crashes down I doubt the UK will be able to afford such wider
use, let alone developing countries...
Thank you for your help,
Valeria
Dr Valeria Frighi
Diabetes Trials Unit
Oxford Centre for Diabetes Endocrinology and Metabolism
Churchill Hospital
Old Road, Oxford, OX3 7LJ
UK
tel +44-1865-857248
fax +44-1865-856286
e-mail valeria.frighi@dtu.ox.ac.uk
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