Download Generic Lipitor market share fight goes public

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22ND MAY 2012
WWW.PHARMACYNEWS.COM.AU
Generic Lipitor market share fight goes public
KIRRILLY BURTON
The battle for market share of
generic Lipitor has moved into the
public sphere.
While drug companies are
continuing to woo pharmacists to
particular brands of generic Lipitor,
their promotional tactics have now
expanded to directly target the
public.
The market share skirmish has
coincided with the PBS listing of
a range of new generic brands of
Atorvastatin from June 1.
These include, APO-Atorvastatin,
Atorvachol GM, Atorvastatin GH,
Atorvastatin Sandoz, Chem mart
Atorvastatin, Terry White Chemists
Atorvastatin, Lorstat AF and
Torvastat QA.
Meanwhile an article published on
The Conversation, by public health
campaigner, Dr Ken Harvey, said a
promotional war has broken out as
more generic competitors to Lipitor
entered the market.
“Originally it targeted pharmacists
but, more recently, it’s moved into
the public domain,” he said.
In early May, Pfizer ran
advertisements in major newspapers
titled “A message to the more than 1
million patients prescribed Lipitor,”
to refute claims that Lipitor was
no longer being made, or had been
replaced.
As reported in Pharmacy News,
the Pharmacy Guild of Australia
said the organisation was aware of
reports that consumers had been
given conflicting advice about the
availability of Lipitor, but believed
it was restricted to a limited number
of pharmacies.
However, Dr Harvey said Pfizer
was a member of Medicines
Australia, whose Code states that
prescription products must not be
promoted to the public and any
information provided to members
of the general public must be
educational.
Pfizer argued that the notices were
not advertisements but “educational”
community service announcements
designed to counter “misleading
and false information” being spread
about the availability of Lipitor.
Dr Harvey said that Ranbaxy
Australia, who launched the first
generic version of Atorvastatin,
Trovas, has also offered pharmacists
supporting their product, $14,647.98
worth of free Trovas stock and a 90
per cent discount for subsequent
orders.
A complaint about the Pfizer
notices will be heard on June 18,
2012 by Medicines Australia Code
of Conduct Committee.
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COLLABORATION KEY TO PRACTICE CHANGE: KARDACHI
NICK O’DONOGHUE
Working with GPs will be an
important part of ensuring new
professional programs and practice
change is successful, Grant Kardachi,
PSA national president believes.
Mr Kardachi warned that previous
attempts to change the role of
pharmacy had floundered as the
profession had failed to collaborate
with other health care providers,
particularly GPs.
Speaking at the PSA Off-shore
Refresher Course last month, Mr
Kardachi said previous attempts to
introduce practice change through
the provision of pharmacy-based
services had been seen as an add-on
to the current model, which he said
needed to be changed.
“With practice change you’ve
clearly got to have a look at the
resources within your pharmacy
and how you’re going to develop
appropriate pharmacist resources,”
he said.
“Are you going to change the
design of the dispensary? Take a
pharmacist out from doing a lot
of the work they currently do, or
bring in a pharmacist for extra hours
a week to manage a lot of these
programs?
“Because, when we get into
MedsCheck and DiabetesCheck, how
are you going to manage that?”
In the past, pharmacy had failed to
collaborate with GPs, Mr Kardachi
said.
He believed this had led to
the failure of previous programs,
including Diabetes Medication
Assistance Service (DMAS).
“DMAS, in the last [Community
Pharmacy] Agreement, one of the
reasons that fell over was the lack of
collaboration with GP, because one
of the things you had to do with the
patients in that particular program
was to get the HbA1C from the
practice,” he said.
“I had some GPs come to me and
say, ‘I had patients come in to me
written down on a piece of paper
the question about HbA1C that they
had to take back to the pharmacist.
The pharmacist had never spoken to
me about the program, how it could
fit in with my diabetes care that I
offer my patients, so I didn’t know
anything about it and I tore up the
paper’, that’s the response you get
if you don’t go about things in the
appropriate way.”
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Latest news for Australian Pharmacy
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GPs overprescribing antidepressants, NPS warns
NICK O’DONOGHUE
Depression is the second most
commonly diagnosed condition by
Australian GPs, but with two thirds
of these consultations resulting in a
prescription of antidepressants, the
NPS is concerned these drugs may be
overprescribed.
NPS clinical adviser Dr Danielle
Stowasser says that current guidelines
endorse antidepressants for moderateto-severe major depressive disorder,
but recommend non-drug therapies as
first line for mild depression, and in
combination with antidepressants for
more severe depression.
“When determining if a patient
could benefit from taking an
antidepressant, a global assessment of
the severity of their symptoms should
be made, with particular consideration
of the degree to which their day-to-day
functioning is impaired and whether
they have had suicidal thoughts or
intent,” Dr Stowasser said.
The latest therapeutic program from
the NPS, 'Depression: Challenges
in primary care', encouraged GPs
to carefully assess the severity of
experience adverse effects and drug
interactions more frequently than
younger patients,” she said.
“Also, take the time to explain to
patients in detail what they should
expect from antidepressant treatment.
A medicinewise patient is more likely
to adhere to treatment and get the best
outcomes.”
Dr Stowasser said evidence showed
that between one third and half of
patients prescribed an antidepressant
discontinued use within three months
of starting treatment.
Common reasons for this include
side effects of antidepressant
medicines, lack of understanding
about depression as a condition, and
what to expect from treatment.
symptoms in patients diagnosed with
major depressive disorder, and then
consider whether an antidepressant
was necessary.
Dr Stowasser said if an
antidepressant was indicated, the
patient’s previous experience with
antidepressants should be taken into
account. Potential drug interactions
and the likelihood of adverse
events, such as weight gain, sexual
dysfunction and gastrointestinal upset,
should also be considered.
“It is particularly important to
assess the balance of benefits and
harms in older patients, since they
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COMMENTS
PHARMACY CLOSURE – LINK
ATORVASTATIN BRANDS – LINK
Statements like, "discount pharmacies
and they are selling everything from
tinned tuna..." and "...a discount
pharmacy in the area had bought her
approval number and have on-sold it to
someone in Victoria", are concerning.
Point 1: A pharmacy can be a
supermarket, but, a supermarket cannot
be a pharmacy? Why? Surely, there is
no difference now....
Point 2: How can a "Discount
Pharmacy" buy an approval number and
sell it to somone in another state? What
about the needs of the local community?
Isn't this why the restrictive location
rules are so vehemently fought for?
Manunda is now down one pharmacy
and presumably people are now
forced to go to the remaining discount
supermarket pharmacies who of course
will oppose another PBS approval?
Why can a PBS pharmacy open up in
Victoria now when before presumably
it could not?
What a joke, and surely an example
of why the location rules are wrong.
Community Pharmacist
I think this is needle in a haystack stuff, but what beautiful free
advertising the Lipitor brand is getting,
especially as they are not supposed to
be advertised.
JN
PRESCRIBING PROJECT – LINK
"Why not seek more de-scheduling of
S4 items to S3?"
This seems to be already happening.
Last 12-18 months: prochlorperazine,
various PPI's, chloramphenicol
drops and ointment, and now oral
famciclovir.
Dave
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