Another Reason Health Costs Are So High
Pfizer Inc. wants to introduce a version of its popular cholesterol pill Lipitor that consumers could buy without a doctor’s prescription, according to people familiar with the matter. The effort, if successful, could help Pfizer squeeze new sales life out of the world’s best-selling drug in the years after Lipitor loses U.S. patent protection in November, which will trigger sales-eroding generic competition that will eat into Lipitor’s current yearly haul of nearly $11 billion. But Pfizer likely faces an uphill battle because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has previously rejected the idea of allowing over-the-counter versions of cholesterol drugs in the same class as Lipitor — known as statins — because of concerns that consumers aren’t able to properly use the drugs without a doctor’s guidance.
The article notes that “a nonprescription version of the cholesterol drug simvastatin is available for sale in U.K. pharmacies, though it is sold ‘behind the counter,’ not on store shelves, requiring interaction with pharmacists.”
So prescription-only availability isn’t the only alternative.
Another example of paternalistic prescription policies that drive up costs of drugs and keep consumers from making their own decisions. Why not provide consumers with a printout of the drug’s recommended dosage and usage and recommend that they visit their doc for additional advice? This would increase the number of heart patients on the drug and make it easier for patients to get refills. It is sort of like birth control: why force women to get an annual exam when they know how to take a pill every day?
I agree Virginia. Too often, the FDA determines that people don’t know “how to use a drug”. It’s way too easy for the regulators to use that line of reasoning.
A few years ago a commentary appeared in the British Medical Journal that rather whimsically asked whether or not statins were so beneficial they should be introduce into the water supply like fluoride.
I have heard nothing about harm coming to British residents due to behind-the-counter sales of Zocor. Keep in mind, 16,500 people die annually of complications from taking aspirin. Yet you never hear of a clamor to remove aspirin from pharmacy shelves.
What are the symptoms of HIV?