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Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11917

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

 

Publication type: Journal Article

Kozyrskyj A, Raymond C, Racher A.
Characterizing early prescribers of newly marketed drugs in Canada: a population-based study.
Eur J Clin Pharmacol 2007 Jun; 63:(6):597-604
http://www.springerlink.com/content/j57055v8jlr31345/


Abstract:

BACKGROUND: The diffusion of innovations model proposes that early adopters of innovation influence others. This study was undertaken to determine if early prescribers and users of newly marketed drugs had different sociodemographic and professional characteristics as compared to majority and late users and prescribers.

METHODS: After market availability in Manitoba, Canada, of celecoxib, alendronate, clopiodogrel and pantoprazole, time to first prescriptions was determined. Early, majority and late adopters of the new drug were characterized by this diffusion time. The prescription, health and prescriber records were compared across adopter categories. The likelihood of being an early or late prescriber or user of the new medications according to patient demographic characteristics, physician factors (specialty and place of training) and neighborhood income was determined with polytomous logistic regression.

RESULTS: Celecoxib demonstrated a much more rapid uptake into routine use than the other drugs. More than 300 Manitoba physicians prescribed celecoxib within two weeks of market availability. Early prescribers of celecoxib were more likely than majority prescribers to be general practitioners (OR = 1.81, 95%CI: 1.40-2.35) and have hospital affiliations (OR = 1.35, 95%CI: 1.03-1.77). Early users of celecoxib were more likely than the majority to have arthritic conditions, have a high income and have paid out-of-pocket for their prescription. For alendronate, clopidogrel and pantoprazole, only prescription drug coverage predicted adopter category. Early prescribers of one new drug were not early prescribers of the other new drugs.

CONCLUSION: No common group of patients or physicians who were early prescribers or users of all four medications was described.

Anita Kozyrskyj
Email: kozyrsk@cc.umanitoba.ca

Keywords:
General practioners - Patient behavior - Polytomous logistic regression - Prescribing characteristics - Sociodemography Publication Types: Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH Terms: 2-Pyridinylmethylsulfinylbenzimidazoles/therapeutic use Aged Aged, 80 and over Alendronate/therapeutic use Attitude of Health Personnel Data Collection Diffusion of Innovation* Drug Utilization/statistics & numerical data* Drug Utilization/trends Family Practice/statistics & numerical data Family Practice/trends Female Humans Insurance, Health, Reimbursement Male Manitoba Middle Aged Physician's Practice Patterns/statistics & numerical data* Physician's Practice Patterns/trends* Prescriptions, Drug/statistics & numerical data* Pyrazoles/therapeutic use Socioeconomic Factors Sulfonamides/therapeutic use Ticlopidine/analogs & derivatives Ticlopidine/therapeutic use Time Factors Substances: 2-Pyridinylmethylsulfinylbenzimidazoles Pyrazoles Sulfonamides pantoprazole celecoxib Ticlopidine Alendronate clopidogrel

 

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Cases of wilful misrepresentation are a rarity in medical advertising. For every advertisement in which nonexistent doctors are called on to testify or deliberately irrelevant references are bunched up in [fine print], you will find a hundred or more whose greatest offenses are unquestioning enthusiasm and the skill to communicate it.

The best defence the physician can muster against this kind of advertising is a healthy skepticism and a willingness, not always apparent in the past, to do his homework. He must cultivate a flair for spotting the logical loophole, the invalid clinical trial, the unreliable or meaningless testimonial, the unneeded improvement and the unlikely claim. Above all, he must develop greater resistance to the lure of the fashionable and the new.
- Pierre R. Garai (advertising executive) 1963