Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Me, too

Several pharmaceutical companies sell what are known as "me too" drugs, which are copies of drugs that are already proven effective and on the market. This cuts the cost of the clinical trial R&D time, and are cash cows for the pharmaceutical company. Most Americans love new stuff. While I completely understand the desire for the companies to do this, mainly to recoup the millions of dollars lost on fail clinical trials per year, the ethical side of this is questionable. Zyprexa is a drug for schizophrenics that is not much more effective than the more affordable generic drugs prescribed for schizophrenia that have been around for years. We are talking a difference of and $8000/year prescription for Zyprexa versus less than an tenth of that cost for a generic. (Note: this article may make some very leery of generics, however).


Some argue that me too drugs are another black eye for Big Pharma-greed-driven, profit-driven tactics to squeeze more money out of those in a vulnerable state of requiring a medication. Prilosec and Nexium are another terrific example of this theory.

However, one class of me too drugs that I don't mind and many women ages 15-35 may agree with me on is birth control. Me too birth control drugs are numerous, I can't venture to guess how many there are available. Television and any fashion magazine or other magazines targeted fo women are filled with ads for different types of these me too drugs. Ordinarily I cringe at the sight of all the pharmaceutical ads in magazines. But you can talk to many women who have been on several different prescriptions for birth control throughout their life and you may be alarmed at how many different kinds they have tried over the years, trying to find out which is the best match for their chemistry and lifestyle. I'd be interested to hear others thoughts on me too drugs.
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1 comment:

atowers said...

As you said, many women try different brands of birth control (as of November 2006, there were over 40 brands) and react differently to each brand. This reason is the reason why "me too" drugs are necessary. My doctor has told me in the past when switching from brand name to a generic version that the drugs are different - usually it is an inactive ingredient, such as the dye to give the pill its coloring. However, because a different chemical exists, your body may not react the same way. And, I believe Prilosec and Nexium are very different because of what they do to stop acid production. I think one is a proton pump inhibitor while one is not. PPI will help people who produce extra stomach acid, but may not help someone with a haital hernia (from what I remember).

While I agree that creating a pill similar to what is already on the market (and will not have a generic form for many years, based on patents) does give a pharmaceutical company a way to make some major cash, the difference in the drugs really might be necessary. Perhaps the question of ethics is their intent - do they really believe that their new drug will fulfill a need that is not met by their competitor's drug or is their intent to capitlize on their competitor's work?

October 14, 2007 at 1:41 PM

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