An ounce of prevention is worth of pound of cure

So the FDA has acted (the ounce). Yes they work slowly but personally I prefer they do that and not rush drugs through the approval process. (Something about deadly

But I digress. Because of that evil man who jacked up the price of a drug because he could and didn't care about the patients, the FDA has moved to see if they can expedite reviews of certain generic drugs (the pound).

"The agency plans to expedite reviews of applications for generic drugs where only one treatment is currently sold."

I like this idea. A lot. Since a generic is essentially the same (but not quite exactly) of existing patented medications, the approval process is much easier than for brand new drugs (or so I believe). The problem is the agency has a backlog of generic medication applications. So now they will see if they can speed some up.

The more generics available, the better. This makes me happy. 

Here come the biosimilars

The FDA has just approved the first biosimilar for the US. These are drugs which are similar but not identical to the original patented drug. Amgen defines them as:

"Unlike generic medicines where the active ingredients are identical, biosimilars are similar to but not identical copies of the originator biologic. They are similar, but not the same. Biologics made by different manufacturers differ from the original product and from each other."

The first FDA approved biosimilar is Zarzio, which is a biosimilar for Neupogen - the lovely injection many of us got after each chemo infusion to help ward off infections. But not to be confused with Neulasta. This first drug could add up to $6 billion over the next ten years.

"Zarzio’s introduction — primarily as a competitor to the Amgen blockbuster Neupogen — marks a milestone, and could add up to savings of $6 billion over the next 10 years, according to drug benefit manager Express Scripts. But that’s just the start — Express Scripts estimates that if 11 other biosimilars pass muster with the FDA, they would shave $250 billion off spending on comparable existing biotech drugs over that same period."

So as big pharma comes up with these fancy new drugs at sky high prices, upwards of $100,000 per patient per year, which overwhelm the insurance companies, the new biosimilars can cut the market prices by 40-50%, which is not as much as the 70-80% savings with a generic.

I realize that biosimilars and generics are not for everyone but a little competition is good for the industry. Insurance companies can use the availability of a biosimilar to negotiate lower pricing for the original drug and shift many patients to the biosimilar to help with substantial savings.

I welcome these changes as a significant step to help contain medical costs.

Generic drug prices going up

Brand name prescription drug prices are sky rocketing. The silver lining for all of us patients is that generic drugs would become available at a much lower price. But now those prices are going up as well.

In the US, the government does not negotiate drug prices or mandate generic drug prices - which have been priced based on the cost of key ingredients - the smart way to do pricing instead of basing it on how much it is worth for the patients life (which is another blog post).

But now, a Senate panel is looking at generic prices and how much they have gone up in the past year. Hmmm..... I smell a rat.

Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of generic drugs and most of my affordable prescriptions are generics. But my brand name prescriptions cost me anywhere from $35-$105/month. Ouch. And that's mail order prices. Which means I have to keep my chemo brain/fibro fog focus on refilling prescriptions before I run out.

I also am not a fan of too much government regulation. I do prefer when market forces run prices. While I am jealous of drug pricing overseas, I find it unfortunate that certain industries make their huge profits on the backs of American patients.

Now back to that rat that I smell.I suspect that something more is afoot than just market forces on the generic prices. Maybe some collusion somewhere. I don't know what that rat is but I am suspicious. Call me a concerned patient for now but I will keep digging around on this one.