Preserved Topic: One big money-making racket

I've learned a few things about the pharmaceutical business in the time I've worked with this company. I can tell you the generic names of a lot of drugs if you give me the brand and vice versa. Give me a name of a popular drug and I can most likely tell you what it looks like. I can take a look at most pharmacies and tell you what's wrong with their workflow and make recommendations to improve its efficiency.

But most importanly I've learned that the whole business is corrupt.

Take for example Prilosec. The patent on Prilosec just expired and it has gone generic which means you can get it cheaper. To combat this the manufacturer has released Nexium which is supposed to be the "next generation" Prilosec. So, Prilosec is now generic and Nexium is the bigger, better, version; or so they'd like you to believe.

Bullshit.

Prilosec is the brand name for a chemical called Omeprazole.

Nexium is the brand name for a chemical called Esomeprazole.

Anyone who has taken an upper-level chemistry course can tell you what that "Es" means. It means that Nexium is, in effect, just a mirror-image of Prilosec. It takes care of the same symptoms, has the same side-effects, but it'll cost you a pretty penny more.

Does that piss you off? Well how about this -- why doesn't the doctor tell you this? Oh, because they're owned by the drug companies. The drug companies give the doctor gifts, send them on cruises for "continuing education" classes, and grease their palms however they can. In return, the doctors don't tell you the whole truth and you pay for that out of your own pocket.

How about Claritin? Some of you taking it may have noticed that it just went generic. Guess what? It should always have been generic. It's not even as strong as some similar over-the-counter drugs that do the exact same thing! The manufacturer has just pressured all the right people into allowing them to keep it prescription. Now the patent is running out and it was going to go generic soon so they release it over the counter.

Seen Clarinex? Guess what, Claritin is Loratadine. Clarinex is Desloratidine.

Desloratidine is Loratidine with a couple of extra methyl groups attached. Upon metabolism your body cleaves these extra methyl groups off and hey!, you're left with good old Loratidine. Pretty sweet deal don't you think? Oh, and don't forget, that Clarinex is far more effective...

...at draining your pocketbook. Nice, isn't it? That's only two examples, there are tons more.

Bottom line: Find a doctor and a pharmacist you really trust and before you pay for some expensive new drug, find out what it does and if there are other drugs that are chemically equivalent but cheaper. Do a little research on your own too. Sites like http://www.rxlist.com contain plenty of info on almost all prescription drugs and with a little work you'll have no problems finding the info you need.

Pretty maddening isn't it?

Edit: Because I can't type....

[This message has been edited by krets (edited 02-23-2003).]

Well, Krets, yes, it's pretty maddening...but try Germany's system on for a go...it's really nuts. Here, you can't get medication without a prescription...not even common Aspirin! Nope, no drugs in grocery stores, etc...you have to go to an Apocary (It's a monopoly!). And talk about prices...20 aspirins here cost about the same as 1000 in the States...

And we won't even talk about the prescriptions...the Doctors write them...and get 'kick-backs' to prescribe certain ones...crazy.


WebShaman

krets: Bad day at work?

You should set up a page online about this (but I suspect you wouldn't make your employers happy) - Secrets of the Pharmacuetical (sp?) Industry Exposed!!.

I have to take a variety of medicines and it is the anti-histamines that mystify me. In the past after a few years they seemed much less effective and I'd be moved on to a different brand but recently it seems that whenever I renew my perscription I get a new one I've just been moved from Zirtek to Cetrizine Dihydrochloride (although there might have been another type in between). In ten years I have only had two different types of asthma inhaler (moving from Ventolin to Salbutomol - with a switch to it being CFC-free/ethanol-powered). I assume this is because there is much more money in anti-histamines as there is a big over the counter trade too? The tablets they give me for my stomach also seem to change as often presumably for similar reasons.

It is sad that doctors don't do these things for the good of the patient.

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Actually, no Emps, I really enjoy my job. The other day I was just talking to a pharmacist about drug companies and such and we started on this subject. It angers me that they do this but I'm not on any prescription meds so it doesn't hit home for me as it might for someone else.

Zyrtec is another drug that should probably already be OTC just like Claritin. Also, Zyrtec is Cetrizine HCl; Zyrtec is just the brand name for that compound. What do they have you on because Cetrizine isn't out in generic form in the states yet? Probably the reason why you're switched every time is that there are a lot of drugs out there that are basically the same chemical compound (like Protonix, Prevacid, and Aciphex) but the manufacturers have to alter them slightly to avoid patent issues. You're probably just being put on chemically equivalent drugs at the request of your insurance company to reduce their cost. Fun isn't it?

WS: Damn, that's expensive. How do you keep your supply of Viagra up to snuff?

There are kick-backs involved in the States too. Doctors prescribe the most recent (and most expensive) release of a drug more often then not. To keep the insurance costs down the insurance companies are starting to crack down on the prescription process. You need to prove that you need the stronger version of something before you can get it by going through the weaker version of it first.

The thing that gets me is that the next version of a drug is usually created at almost the same time as the original. So if they're going to offer the original at a lower price once the next version of it is 'discovered' why don't they do that in the first place? Money Grubbing Bastards.

GrythusDraconis
I admire a man who can budget his life around his pint of Guinness and I envy a man who's wife will let him. ME, inspired by Suho1004 here.

krets: I also bet its a pain for the pharmacists as well having to explain to old ladies why their tablets keep changing.

quote:

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What do they have you on because Cetrizine isn't out in generic form in the states yet?

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It just says Cetrizine Dihydrochloride (10mg) - its made by Approved Prescription Services Limited from Leeds (UK) but there is no real information on them out there. Ah no I tell a lie I have tracked them down to:
www.berk-pharm.co.uk

but a lot of the site is password protected.

quote:

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You're probably just being put on chemically equivalent drugs at the request of your insurance company to reduce their cost. Fun isn't it?

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Well I'm in the UK so we don't tend to get our medicines paid for by insurance companies - they are susidised by the NHS.

[edit: I had a quick look through various other things I get on perscription and they are also pretty similar the Salbutamol is also from APS and my Bectomethasone Dipropionate is made by Generics (UK) Limited]

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Ummmmm...hydrocodone

Cell 816 ~ teamEarth ~ Asylum Quotes

Here's an excellent site for info on the s-r-i's out there. One of those sites the companies hate. http://www.drugawareness.org/home.html

Geezus! Just looking at that site makes me want some Xanax.