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Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5052

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

Klok RM, Boersma C, Oosterhuis I, Visser ST, DE Jong-VAN DEN Berg LT, Postma MJ.
Switch patterns before and after patent expiry of omeprazole: a case study in The Netherlands.
Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2006 Jun 1; 23:(11):1595-600
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2036.2006.02921.x


Abstract:

Summary Background An increase of therapeutic substitution after patent expiry might have a negative effect on cost-savings generated with newly introduced generic drugs. To evaluate influences of patent expiry on therapeutic substitution, switch behaviour before and after patent expiry was investigated. Aim To describe proton pump inhibitor use and investigate substitution patterns from omeprazole before and after patent expiry. Methods Data were obtained from the InterAction DataBase. Proportional proton-pump inhibitor use was identified per quarter during the study period 2000-2003. For the second part two cohorts – one before and one after patent expiry – were defined. The number of switchers was quarterly identified during 2-year follow-up period. For statistical analyses the chi-square test and hazard ratio were used. Results In proportional use, a downward trend for omeprazole was found. After patent expiry, significantly more patients switched to other proton pump inhibitors (P < 0.001). The hazard ratio of 0.62 (95% CI: 0.57-0.69), indicates that for every six patients switching before patent expiry, 10 patients switch after patent expiry. Conclusion After patent expiry more patients switch to another proton pump inhibitor. In light of the total savings achieved with generic omeprazole, the importance of this negative impact on total cost-savings on proton pump inhibitors is unclear.

 

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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