- Offering insured patients a discount card to get Lipitor for $4 a month, far below the $25 average copayment for a preferred brand-name drug and below the $10 average copay for a generic drug. Pfizer is promoting this heavily through ads, information distributed at doctors' offices and its www.LipitorForYou.com site. Pfizer, based in New York, said Tuesday that sign-ups have exceeded its goals
- Paying pharmacies to mail Lipitor patients offers for the $4 copay card and to counsel patients that Lipitor lowers bad cholesterol more than rival drugs and helps prevent heart attacks and strokes.
- Keeping U.S. marketing spending nearly level until the last minute, versus the typical two-thirds drop in a drug's final year under patent. From July through September, Pfizer spent almost $90 million on doctor sales calls and free samples, about the same as a year earlier, according to Cegedim Strategic Data. Ads targeting patients fell about 60 percent to $19 million.
- Negotiating unusual deals with some insurance plans and prescription benefit managers, the companies that process prescription claims for insurers or employers, to block pharmacists from dispensing generic Lipitor. Pfizer is giving them rebates that bring their cost for Lipitor down to the price of a generic or slightly less — if they agree to dispense only Lipitor for the six months before additional generic competition slashes prices. The move has generated some controversy and means many of the 3 million Americans taking Lipitor won't be able switch to the generic.
- Under those contracts, patients will pay either their plan's standard generic copayment or just $4 — the lowest copayment pharmacies at supermarkets and discounters such as Wal-Mart offer for the most widely used generic drugs.
- Pfizer also is continuing assistance programs that subsidize uninsured patients wanting Lipitor, which costs about $115 to $160 a month, depending on dosage. Generic Lipitor, called atorvastatin, should cost 30 percent to 50 percent less.
- People without insurance also can order the generic, with a prescription, through websites such as HealthWarehouse.com
- 90-day supply of Lipitor, even after paying rebates to insurers and patients, Pfizer can make a profit of roughly $100, compared with about $225 before generic competition. That's partly because administrative and advertising costs will decline, and it barely costs a dime to make a pill.
- Meanwhile, Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. looks to be the biggest loser in this. It has a deal to distribute an "authorized generic" version manufactured by Pfizer but sold under Watson's brand, with Pfizer keeping an estimated 70 percent of the price.
Watson CEO Paul Bisaro said he had thought Pfizer would retain about 25 percent of Lipitor users for the next six months, but now "it looks like it will be 40 to 45 percent." - India's Ranbaxy Laboratories is the only company besides Watson with the right to sell generic Lipitor in the U.S. for the next six months. But Ranbaxy has had repeated manufacturing quality problems, and it's unclear whether it will have the Food and Drug Administration's approval to ship its version come Nov. 30.
- Pfizer’s strategy so far is limited to the first 180 days after Lipitor goes off patent. During that period, under law, generic competition is limited and the first entries have historically charged fairly high prices to recoup their costs. After the first six months, any company can enter the generic market, and prices plunge.
- The intention of Pfizer’s discount was to keep Lipitor “at or below generics’ cost to the health care system.” The discount is also extending to many Medicare prescription drug plans that will dispense Lipitor even if patients ask for generics, according to a memo released by an advocacy group called Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency.
Find the lipitor notice on not covering generic version under Medicare Part D indicating
<< Generic Atorvastatin Not Covered; Use BRAND LIPITOR>>
No comments:
Post a Comment