Print“The comparative research showed that candesartan reduced blood pressure slightly more than losartan, but that the difference is unlikely to be cost effective, particularly when it is prescribed in combination with other drugs.”
A simple switch at the pharmacy could save the U.K.’s National Health Service $324 million (£200 million) per year, a new study finds. The savings would stem from using a generic blood pressure and heart failure medicine instead of brand name drugs of the same class, say researchers.
The savings, if realized, would prove a scrap of good news for the budget-constrained public health provider. It faces a mandate to cut costs by as much as $32.2 billion (£20 billion) over the next four years.
“NHS prescribing is a complex issue and it is vital that the proposed changes to the NHS ensure that doctors are making high-quality clinical decisions that are also cost-effective,” says Rubin Minhas, clinical director and editor-in-chief of the British Medical Journal Evidence Centre, in an editorial that appeared with the study, published in the International Journal of Clinical Practice. “It is a delicate balancing act between what doctors think are best for their patients and making the best use of hard-pressed budgets.”
The NHS currently spends more than $402.2 million (£250 million) a year on angiotensin-II receptor blockers for high blood pressure and heart failure. Candesartan, which is still under patent and marketed under a number of brand names, dominates the market. Its generic competitor, losartan, cost 60 percent less.
The study’s lead author, Anthony Grosso, and his team at the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reviewed 14 hypertension and heart studies published between 1998 and 2009 to compare the blood pressure lowering efficacy and cardiovascular outcomes of candesartan and losartan.
Grosso says the comparative research showed that candesartan reduced blood pressure slightly more than losartan, but that the difference is unlikely to be cost effective, particularly when it is prescribed in combination with other drugs. “When we took all the factors into account, based on the evidence we reviewed, it was clear that losartan was likely to be the most cost-effective (angiotensin-II receptor) to treat high blood pressure or heart failure,” he says.
Head-to-head comparisons between brand-name and generic medicines are likely to become more and more common during the decade ahead as governments, insurers, and other payers grow to be increasingly price sensitive in the face of ballooning national health bills run up by fast-aging populations.
February 04, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-u_k_could_save_324_million_with_generic_heart_drug.html
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