March 29, 2024

Senators Question Plan to Stall Generic Lipitor

The action came as the patent expired on Lipitor, the best-selling drug in history.

Pfizer has taken unprecedented actions to preserve market share during the next six months, while generic competition is limited and prices remain fairly high. Pfizer is offering discounts to companies that will reject generic prescriptions and substitute Lipitor.

While some companies say they will save money, others do not. The senators said they were concerned about longer term impacts on employers, Medicare and health care costs.

“We need to take a close look to ensure we’re protecting both taxpayer dollars and access to the medicine patients need,” Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, said in a statement released with the senators’ letters.

The letters were signed by Senators Baucus, a Montana Democrat; Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican; and Herb Kohl, the Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the Special Committee on Aging.

“Consumers and taxpayers foot the bill when drug benefit companies and insurers manipulate the marketplace to prevent access to generic drugs for millions of Americans,” Senator Kohl said in the statement.

Pfizer, in a statement, said, “Our intent is to offer Lipitor to payers and patients at or below the cost of the generic during the 180-day period.” The senators’ concerns are based on “incomplete or incorrect information,” MacKay Jimeson, a Pfizer spokesman, said in an e-mail. “Participation in Pfizer’s programs by a health plan is entirely voluntary,” he said.

The letters said pharmacy benefit managers might pocket the Pfizer discounts while charging employers and Medicare the full price for Lipitor — a situation the companies insist will not occur. The companies say they will pass the Pfizer discounts on to employers, Medicare and consumers.

“We are concerned that arrangements like this will hinder access to generic drugs today and in the future,” the letters said.

Watson Pharmaceuticals shipped a generic to 28,000 pharmacies on Wednesday. Ranbaxy Laboratories is seeking approval for another, but Ranbaxy has been under federal scrutiny.

The letters went to the chiefs of Pfizer; the insurance companies UnitedHealthcare and Coventry Health Care; and the pharmacy benefit management companies Express Scripts, Medco Health Solutions and Catalyst Rx, which act as middlemen between manufacturers and insurers.

Express Scripts and Medco have recommended that their clients sell generics, not Lipitor, because they say the Pfizer offer, even with a discount, could cost more in the long run. But those two companies are also buying Lipitor at the generic price for their mail order operations.

United, Coventry and Catalyst have said the Pfizer discount will save them money until more generics enter the market in June. Lipitor will also match or beat the copayment rate for generic drugs.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=1a3359a40ff34fcbac37d79e261ffe08

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