Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Off Patent wars

The National Post reports today about a recent deal in Saskatchewan between Gen Med (a Pfizer Generic Company) and the provincial government for the supply of generic Norvasc. It appears that a tendering process was followed and that the bid was won by GenMed . Now , there are several things that are quite new here. One is that the government will restrict the choice of Pharmacy on which generic they will dispense for the public plan. This restriction is sure to raise a reaction of pharmacy as they typically had the choice of which company they would stock. Another is , what will happen to the private payers? In Ontario and across the country , typically the private payers saw increases in their rates after Ontario did a similar thing with a limited number of drugs. With a large number of blockbuster drugs due to come off patent in the next several years ,will we see more of this perhaps even on the private side?


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