Data Wars
According to an article on Bloomberg news:
Doctors have embraced the drugs -- including Merck's Januvia, and, in a second new class, Byetta from Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Lilly -- largely because they don't cause low blood sugar and can lead to weight loss. Analysts say the products may each generate peak annual sales of $1 billion or more within three years.
A review of 29 studies -- only three of which lasted more than 30 weeks -- found that while the drugs work better than placebos in controlling blood sugar, they are no more effective than medications available for pennies a pill. The research also showed the drugs carry side effects older treatments don't, including nausea, vomiting and infections.Well let’s see losing weight may help some patients kick Type II diabetes but it costs more than older and cheaper medications. It’s only a matter of time before the insurance companies weigh in on this. All it takes is one benefits manager to determine that their company can save money by insisting that their customers switch to the older cheaper medications but this study has several other implications.
How long will it be before the FDA and insurers request head to head clinical trials of new medications with older generic medications? Will Celebrex win out against Ibuprofen and will Cymbalta be able to compete against other generic SSRI’s? This will of course lead to higher development costs which in turn will lead to higher drug prices.
Effect on DTC & Patients.
If you’re a DTC marketer and you are ignoring this story than welcome to the Ostrich club. What do patients think of this story and how will it affect them? Well one could argue that this will continue to erode the confidence of any drug company to present effective product claims or that physicians will get more questions from their skeptical patients.
It’s an additional symptom in an industry that is under attack from all sides. I personally feel that the industry brought this on itself somewhat. The misjudgments, bad judgments and really bad business decisions of some are hurting the whole industry. As long as Wall Street is more important than patients it’s going to get a whole of a lot worse before it gets better.