pharma mystery

[cellio]

I don't understand the drug industry. Ok, ok, nobody does. Let me be more specific: I don't understand what's going on with one of my glaucoma drugs, Xalatan

Comments

[woodwindy]

They're desperately trying to build brand loyalty while they still can? I can't come up with anything else that seems even remotely plausible -- you're right, it is odd.

[cellio]

schulman (below) is on to something.

I have no brand loyalty for drugs (or much of anything else where I can't perceive a difference). If my doctor says there's equivalent, I will take the generic that costs me $10 a pop (and with the lower overall price) instead of the name brand that costs me $25 a pop. (My insurance company charges the higher co-pay for all name-brand drugs, not just the ones for which a generic is available.)

[cellio]

Yeah, if they're not equivalent, all bets are off. My doctor has high hopes in this particular case, but of course we won't know until there's actually one available that people can start testing.

[ariannawyn]

YOU may have no brand loyalty (and neither do I), but a lot of people do. "Ask you doctor about [drug]..." I agree that's the only motivation I can come up with for the pharma co.

And as someone else already said, not all generics are actually equivalent to their name-brand inspiration... We ran into that with one of my kids' meds and had a brief fight with the insurance co until the prescribing doc got on our side and signed on the "brand-name specified" line of the script each time.

[cellio]

Yeah, if they're not really equivalent that's completely different. I've had good luck with generics so far, but that's no guarantee. But when this one goes generic we're certainly going to look into it.