Therapeutic Substitution Causes Suspicions: Survey
1 CommentBy Ed Silverman // October 2nd, 2008 // 7:23 am
This may not be a surprising finding, but the National Consumers League asked Harris Interactive to query 1,387 US adults who take prescription meds and 66 percent report they never heard of therapeutic substitution. Only 7 percent are aware of the concept and understand it involves replacing a prescribed drug with a chemically different one.
Other findings: About 70 percent would be very or extremely concerned if their prescription had been changed without their doctor’s knowledge and consent into a different medication meant to treat the same condition. And 77 percent very much oppose the practice of therapeutic substitution without the consent of the prescribing doctor or patient.
Meanwhile, 22 percent would be very or extremely concerned if their prescription had been changed with their doctor’s knowledge and consent into a different medication meant to treat the same condition. But 57 percent are very or extremely likely to consider switching to a different medication if their physician felt that the two were interchangeable.
Also worth noting: 68 percent would oppose insurance companies offering incentives to physicians for switching patients to lower cost alternatives, and 73 percent would oppose insurance companies offering incentives to pharmacists to switch patients to lower cost alternatives. Here are the complete survey results.
fighting ANDA practices
Thank you for this one, Ed.
While I believe this survey may be more about pharmacies making generic substitutions than the fact that our branded medications are altered all of the time without warning, I have been doing my level best to alert the ‘powers that be’ to the problem with abbreviated new drug applications for branded medications.
My biggest concern here is that the survey may mimic the legislation put forth in several states to allow epilepsy drug consumers their branded medications-
in that, this survey might be supported by major drug companies who tout the dangers of switching people to generic drugs, while the major companies change their own products to create the very same dangers that switching to a generic drugs does.
The drug companies couldn’t be more hypocritical and it would be good to know if they support the National Consumers League at all.
It was a very hard lesson to learn about trust when the Epilepsy Foundation (who are supposedly our advocates and who is largly supported by the industry) was removing threads that contained the reported AEs of the “New Look” Dilantin users. I have little faith in anyone claiming to be advocates and that is the statement of both the EFA & the NCL. Is this simply another effort by the major drug companies to discredit generics so that they can continue to make their sales?
“About 70 percent would be very or extremely concerned if their prescription had been changed without their doctor’s knowledge…”
Indeed!
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/05/a-new-version-of-dilantin-is-giving-pfizer-fits/
Drug changed without our doctor’s knowledge despite what the manufacturer says:
http://www.efnj.com/media/pdf/ezine/Epilepsy%20News%20Issue%205.pdf
Just A Thought