Within a few years, many patents on top-selling drugs will expire. But already today the equivalents absorb the 30% of expenditure and the 50% of consumption (DDD). How will the market and possible savings change when even the "blue pill" (in two years) becomes a generic one.
13 JAN - The space occupied by equivalent drugs in the Italian market continues to grow. 30% of category A pharmaceutical expenditure is absorbed by generics which, in terms of consumption (DDD), now cover 50% of the total, as highlighted by the recent 2010 preliminary report by Osmed with data for the first nine months of last year, formalizing the consolidation of these products which, already in 2009, absorbed 27.8% of expenditure.
The first generic boom thanks to off patent cardiovascular drugs
Significant results also following the expiry of the patent of important molecules in terms of costs such as losartan (antihypertensive), clopidogrel (platelet aggregation inhibitor for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases) and nebivolol (vasodilator, antihypertensive). All medicines that form part of the large family of medicines for the cardiovascular system which for more than a decade has held the record both for consumption (47% of the total DDD/1000 inhabitants) and for per capita expenditure (36%).
New important patent deadlines are coming
Examining the table of the top thirty class A active ingredients by territorial expenditure elaborated by Osmed in its 2010 report, it is discovered that at least twelve molecules lost their patent between last year and 2009. Or are about to lose it by 2013.
Among the latter, the top three in the standings: atorvastatin (anti-hypercholesterolemia, will lose its patent this year) which in the first nine months of 2010 generated expenditure of 399 million euro. Rosuvastatin (antihypercholesterolemia, off patent since 2012) for which, in the same period, 232 million euros were spent. The combined salmeterol + fluticasone (beta2 anti-asthma agonist, off patent since 2013) for which 227 million were spent.
If we add the other active ingredients (we are always quoting the Osmed data for the first nine months of 2010) which each have generated an expenditure of more than 100 million euros and which will soon see their patent expire, there really is significant room for savings for the NHS.
A few examples: esomeprazole (expired in 2010; expenditure of 187 million euros), valsartan + hydrochlorothiazide (expires in 2011; expenditure of 164 million euros), irbesartan + hydrochlorothiazide (expires in 2013; expenditure of 136 million
