Healthy Skepticism Library item: 5950
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: news
FACTBOX-Drug offers pitched at U.S. patients
Reuters 2006 Aug 13
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-08-13T140209Z_01_N11434265_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-COUPONS-FACTBOX.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna
Full text:
Aug 13 (Reuters) – Many big drug makers offer coupons, rebates, free trials and other incentives for U.S. consumers to try their products.
Manufacturers say the promotions give patients a break on drug costs or a chance to try a new medicine without charge, and stress that patients must have a doctor’s prescription.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and consumer groups have raised concerns that the offers might alter perceptions about a product’s safety or effectiveness, or sway people to expensive, brand-name drugs. Some critics want a ban on coupons for prescription drugs.
Some recent offers are listed below:
- Viagra users without insurance coverage can sign up for a “value card” that provides a free prescription for every six of the Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) impotence drug a patient fills. Patients can try rival pill Cialis at no charge and receive a second free sample if they like the drug. If not, Cialis maker Lilly Icos (LLY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (ICOS.O: Quote, Profile, Research) will pay for a sample of another impotence pill. Makers of a third impotence drug, Levitra, offer three tablets at no cost. Levitra is sold by Bayer AG (BAYG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Schering-Plough Corp. (SGP.N: Quote, Profile, Research)
- Insomniacs can get seven days of the Sanofi-Aventis (SNY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (SASY.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) sleeping pill Ambien CR free, or four free tablets of Sepracor Inc.‘s (SEPR.O: Quote, Profile, Research) rival drug, Lunesta. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. (4502.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) offers a rebate of up to $20 on its insomnia drug, Rozerem.
- Pfizer has a free trial offer for cholesterol fighter Lipitor, as does AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (AZN.L: Quote, Profile, Research) for rival treatment Crestor.
- Heartburn sufferers who take TAP Pharmaceutical’s (ABT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (4502.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) Prevacid can receive a $25 rebate, or they can receive seven days’ worth of AstraZeneca’s competing drug Nexium free.
- Women can try Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo birth control pill for one month free, or get $5 off the company’s Ortho Evra contraceptive patch. Organon Inc. (AKZO.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) offers a month-long free trial of its NuvaRing birth control device.
