tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40543572901073528122012-01-31T23:20:21.873-08:00An Online Drugstore Pharmacy where you can find all range of generic medications for all age group and disease at cheap price. Order now and save upto 90% with our discounted medications on your health cost annually.Linda Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10894708425792351088noreply@blogger.comBlogger21100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054357290107352812.post-39195097095840844982012-01-05T01:39:00.000-08:002012-01-05T01:39:53.473-08:00<a href="http://kitteekake.blogspot.com/2009/09/vegan-mofo-iii-2009-edition.html?showComment=1253244572403">Vegan MoFo III (2009 Edition) | Cake Maker to the Stars--Vegan and Gluten-Free</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4054357290107352812-3919509709584084498?l=whatwouldgingerdo.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Linda Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10894708425792351088noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4054357290107352812.post-37549260733605010952012-01-05T01:16:00.000-08:002012-01-27T02:40:52.283-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">New York-based Pfizer has devised discounts and incentives for patients, insurers and companies that process prescriptions that will, at least for the next six months, make the brand name drug about as cheap as or cheaper than the generics. Pfizer also has spent tens of millions of dollars this year on marketing to keep patients on Lipitor, which loses patent protection Wednesday.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Normally when a drug's patent ends, generic rivals grab nearly all its market share in a year or less, and the original maker quietly shifts focus to its newer products.&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Pfizer (PFE) , the world's biggest drugmaker, is not giving up that easy on the best-selling drug in history. Lipitor had peak sales of about $13 billion and still brings in nearly $11 billion a year, about a sixth of Pfizer's revenue. With no new blockbusters to fill that hole, the company is making an unprecedented push to hang onto Lipitor revenue as long as possible.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Pfizer's strategy is cunning and could become the new norm in the pharmaceutical industry, as most other drugmakers also face generic competition to top-selling medicines and haven't been able to come up with profitable replacements.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> "People getting a month of lifesaving medicine for the price of a cup of Starbucks is … pretty impressive," said Michael Kleinrock, a research director at data firm IMS Health.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Pfizer's effort includes:</b></span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>&nbsp;</b></span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>&nbsp;</b>—Offering insured patients a <a href="http://www.globaldiscountdrugs.com/lipitor.html">discount</a> card to get Lipitor for $4 a month, far below the $25 average copayment for a preferred brand-name drug and below the $10 average copay for a generic drug. Pfizer is promoting this heavily through ads, information distributed at doctors' offices and its www.LipitorForYou.com site. Pfizer said Tuesday that sign-ups have exceeded its goals.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> —Paying pharmacies to mail Lipitor patients offers for the $4 copay card and to counsel patients that Lipitor lowers bad cholesterol more than rival drugs and helps prevent heart attacks and strokes.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> —Keeping U.S. marketing spending nearly level until the last minute, vs. the typical two-thirds drop in a drug's final year under patent. From July through September, Pfizer spent almost $90 million on doctor sales calls and free samples, about the same as a year earlier, according to Cegedim Strategic Data. Ads targeting patients fell about 60% to $19 million. All that will soon taper off.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> — Negotiating unusual deals with some insurance plans and prescription benefit managers, the companies that process prescription claims for insurers or employers, to block pharmacists from dispensing generic Lipitor. Pfizer is giving them rebates that bring their cost for Lipitor down to the price of a generic or slightly less — if they agree to dispense only Lipitor for the six months before additional generic competition slashes prices. The move has generated some controversy and means many of the 3 million Americans taking Lipitor won't be able switch to the generic.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Under those contracts, patients will pay either their plan's standard generic copayment or just $4 — the lowest copayment pharmacies at supermarkets and discounters, such as Wal-Mart, offer for the most widely used generic drugs.<br />For now, patients seem to be buying into the logic.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> "If I can get the name brand at the same price or for pennies more than the generic, I have no motivation to switch," said Richard Shiekman, 59, who has been taking Lipitor for six years and credits the drug with sharply cutting his bad cholesterol. Shiekman, a wine and spirits importer from Redding, Conn., got a $4 copay card two weeks ago after his pharmacy sent an offer guaranteeing that price through December 2012.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> While generic medicines work the same as brand drugs for nearly everyone, some patients prefer the brand.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> "We want to make sure that patients who are currently taking Lipitor and want to continue … have the opportunity to do so," said David Simmons, who heads Pfizer's Established Products business. He said research shows more than a third of patients want to stay on Lipitor.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Pfizer also is continuing assistance programs that subsidize uninsured patients wanting Lipitor, which costs about $115 to $160 a month, depending on dosage. Generic Lipitor, called atorvastatin, should cost 30% to 50% less.<br />People without insurance also can order the generic, with a prescription, through websites such as www.HealthWarehouse.com.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Patients could save even more by taking other generic drugs in the same class that have been on sale for several years: pravastatin (Pravachol) and simvastatin (Zocor). But they're not as potent as Lipitor, the key reason its sales have held up.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Typically, brand-name drugs get one or two generic competitors initially, priced about 25% lower. Six months later, other generic companies are allowed to jump in and the price drops as much as 80%.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> About 90% of the branded drug's sales ultimately vanish, as insured patients seeking a lower copayment switch over and most pharmacies automatically substitute a generic for a brand name.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Sanford Bernstein analyst Dr. Tim Anderson estimates that for a 90-day supply of Lipitor, even after paying rebates to insurers and patients, Pfizer can make a profit of roughly $100, compared with about $225 before generic competition. That's partly because administrative and advertising costs will decline, and it barely costs a dime to make a pill.Anderson expects Pfizer's strategy to boost its earnings per share about 2% next year. The stock traded as high as $21 a share during the summer but has since dropped back to just under $20 a share.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, Parsippany, N.J.-based Watson Pharmaceuticals (WPI) looks to be the biggest loser in this. It has a deal to distribute an "authorized generic" version manufactured by Pfizer but sold under Watson's brand, with Pfizer keeping an estimated 70% of the price.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Watson CEO Paul Bisaro said he had thought Pfizer would retain about 25% of Lipitor users for the next six months, but now "it looks like it will be 40% to 45%."<br />Bisaro said that could reduce his company's anticipated profit next year.<br />"This is sort of the new generation of brand protection," he added.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">India's Ranbaxy Laboratories (RBXD) is the only company besides Watson with the right to sell <a href="http://www.globaldiscountdrugs.com/lipitor.html">Generic Lipitor</a> the U.S. for the next six months. But Ranbaxy has had repeated manufacturing quality problems, and it's unclear whether it will have the Food and Drug Administration's approval to ship its version come Nov. 30.Ranbaxy said it would not reveal what will happen until then. The FDA, as is its custom, declined to comment. But Pfizer executives say they expect Ranbaxy to have a generic on the market.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">An independent pharmacists' group called Pharmacists United for Truth and Transparency has raised alarms that the rebate deals will stick plan sponsors — employers, unions and taxpayers — with higher costs than for generics.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">But spokespeople for a few prescription benefit managers that have received Pfizer's offer say it would cost insurance plans and patients the same as, or slightly less than, for <a href="http://www.globaldiscountdrugs.com/lipitor.html">Generic Lipitor</a>.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">&nbsp;</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"> "Next year we're going to save clients and members over $1 billion just on this drug," said Tim Wentworth, head of employer and key client accounts for Medco Health Solutions (MHS), one of the biggest pharmacy benefits managers.</span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><br />Source: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/treatments/story/2011-11-29/Pfizer-maneuvers-to-protect-Lipitor-from-generics/51475288/1</span></h3></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4054357290107352812-3754926073360501095?l=whatwouldgingerdo.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Linda Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10894708425792351088noreply@blogger.com0