Cheap Statins Equal More Compliance
1 CommentBy Ed Silverman // May 3rd, 2007 // 2:04 pm
Funny what the price of a generic can do to some people. New data indicates that patient compliance on cholesterol pills was higher in the six months after Merck’s Zocor lost patent protection and cheaper copycats showed up.
Data pertaining to a large group of patients taking brand-name statins - 60,722, to be exact - compared with more than 29,800 taking generic versions revealed compliance was 3 percent higher among those taking the copycats, according to Verispan, the research firm.
A likely reason - out-of-pocket costs can often influence brand sales. Among statins, the average out-of-pocket savings per cost of prescription for generics was more than $10 per 30-day prescription (see chart).
Verispan press release.[tags]Generics, Statins[/tags]
Lew
Undoubtedly co-payment level impacts compliance rates, at least among new starts. It is also worth noting that switching medication due to new restrictions (eg, the implementation of a Medicaid PDL or newformulary management tools), as opposed to clinical reasons for a switch, yield significant discontinuation as well.
You also might find it interesting that some innovative employers like Pitney Bowes have eliminated co-payments on all statins for their diabetic population. It believes that there is more value in ensuring that the statins are complied with rather than trying to control which statin is used.