A recent Harris Poll shows a dramatic change in what medicines people are purchasing and where they are purchasing them.
In just over two years, the proportion of adults who reported choosing generics over brand name prescription drugs has increased from 68% to 81%. In addition, more people are buying their medicines in discount stores like Wal-Mart and through the mail, rather than at chain or independent pharmacies.
In 2006, Harris predicted the increased use of low-cost generics, but these results were striking. "It is good news for those seeking to contain health care costs, including the government's Part D Medicare drug benefit program. It is not good news for pharmaceutical firms trying to generate the profits to fund their drug research, or for their shareholders."
Harris' commentary misses an important point, though.
According to a recent article in Health Affairs, prescription medicines--brand name and generic--account for only 10 percent of all health spending, much less than either hospitals (31 percent of the total) or doctors (18 percent). Since not all patients respond to medicines in the same way, we need to provide treatment options. The goal should not be to restrict access to medicines based on cost by only using generics, but focusing on what is really driving healthcare costs: chronic diseases. Nearly half of us suffer from one or more chronic diseases, which are often preventable and manageable, and $3 of $4 spent on healthcare goes toward treating chronic diseases. Let's focus on the real problem. How about more support for prevention efforts and disease management, and increasing the number of employers implementing value-based benefit design for employees and dependents?
Sometimes I think that we are not seeing the forest for the trees.
Rick--
We in the pharmaceutical industry have heard that type of criticism before. I hope that this kind of exchange can help to dispel that feeling.
Chronic diseases are a fact of life now--one of the prices we pay for living longer than our ancestors did. It has been shown that one of the best ways to manage chronic diseases--thereby preventing costlier complications and lengthy hospital stays--is for patients to take their medications as prescribed.
Our mission is to improve healthcare through the research and development of innovative medical treatments. We’re proud of that. There is always a need for new treatments because every patient does not respond to medicines in the same way.
But I ask you to look at it this way as well: GSK has thousands of employees for whom it provides healthcare coverage in the US. We’re just as concerned about healthcare spending as everyone else--and we offer a number of prevention and wellness programs to our employees. Healthy employees cost less than ill ones. We all have a vested interest in good health.
Michael,
Globally, I think you are dead-on. Yet I wonder about the sincerity of big pharma. When I read frequent articles about drugs in or not in the pipeline.... drugs coming off patent... the impact they have on share price... and the need for big pharma to keep coming up with new hit drugs, I really wonder how much a company like GSK or Pfizer worries about the overall health picture as you describe it when their mission is to develop new and popular medicines.
Hi Michael -
It would be interesting to hear what GSK is doing to shift the focus and look at the real problem. What programs does GSK have/offer on prevention and disease management? It is easy to say one thing but people need to see clear examples of pharmas efforts to change.
Thanks