Posted by detroitpistons on March 13, 2010, at 14:02:08
In reply to Re: My letter to the FDA » detroitpistons, posted by ed_uk2010 on March 13, 2010, at 9:20:21
Ed,
You have no idea how messed up things are over here! Well, you probably do, but that's besides the point...Regardless of what people think of the NHS, at least they don't fall for this patent extender crap.
Here in the States, I think that most independent, scientific panels of doctors and researchers have the exact same mentality as the NHS. They will not have the wool pulled over their eyes.
However, now picture the private, for profit psychiatric offices - the actual doctors in the field. They are visited frequently by drug reps, and for some reason, they believe what the drug reps say, or they're somehow in bed with the drug reps. It's a total conflict of interest. Some doctors are just borderline crooked. I used to work as a buyer for industrial raw materials, and I can say that most companies prohibit accepting gifts from suppliers. Such is not the case for doctors. Here's a pretty good article:
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/morreim/prescribing.html
Bottom line...They stop getting Effexor samples and start getting Pristiq samples. So what do they do? They put people on Pristiq, even if there is no evidence of "clinically significant" advantages. Just browsing around the "internets," I can see that many, many people are being transitioned over to Pristiq. For what? So yes, Pristiq is becoming the dominant form of venlafaxine over here.
At the same time, Osmotica Pharmaceuticals now makes an extended release venlafaxine tablet**. I know they provide samples, so I don't understand the sudden rush to transition to Pristiq. Well, I do. Drug reps have these doctors in their back pockets.
**Get this, due to patent litigation, companies like Osmotica aren't allowed to make a direct equivalent to Effexor XR quite yet. They can't make extended release beads packaged in capsules. Therefore, they have to make extended release venlafaxine in tablet form. Because of this, it is not considered a "true" generic/ substitute. This is all so silly. It borders on circus-like ridiculousness.
> How popular is Pristiq in the US? We don't even have Pristiq here. I guess Wyeth decided not to bother marketing it because they know full well that our doctors will be told not to prescribe it (which is exactly what happened to Cymbalta). Every time a patent-extender comes out, our doctors get told not to prescribe it! This is bad news for the pharmaceutical industry but it does have its advantages.
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poster:detroitpistons
thread:939283
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100305/msgs/939422.html