Q

Assignment reflects about the pricing strategy of Metformin by comparing it at retail level.

Home, - Study on Price Comparison of Metformin

Introduction

The report chosen Metformin 500 mg and its generic Glyburdie 500 mg (30 tablets) for the study. The club card price of Publix, Walmart and Walgreens price were compared for Metformin including it’s over the counter store brand Berberin 500 mg. However, this report has compared the prices listed in their website. Generic drugs have estimated to save $8 to $10 billion cost of medication for the customers. It is considered as safe and approved by FDA. Type 2 Diabetes is more commonly prevalent around the world and cost of metformin is observed to be seamlessly high rather than its generic medicine. This report focuses on commonly used Type 2 Diabetes medicine named as Metformin (Glucophage)

According to WHO “A generic drug product is a pharmacological component which is intended to be interchangeable with innovator’s product manufactured without license by the manufacturing company which is marketed after the patent expiry date”. In a study conducted to estimate the perceptions of generic medicine towards 506 US Physicians indicated that 27% doctors possess negative efficacy towards generic drugs. 50% reported that the quality of generic medicines are largely compromised in generic medicine rather than branded and over the counter medicines. Generic medicine costs less than branded medicine which is subjected to 15 years of testing and clinical trials. Generic drugs are believed to be produced under low quality facilities or at inadequate facility labs to brand-name drugs. The FDA applies the same standards for all drug production facilities regarding drug production in United States, and various pharmaceutical companies prepare both brand-name and generic drugs. Despite the matter of fact, the FDA estimates that 50% of generic drug production is done by branded companies.There exists a myth that generic drugs longer time than branded to work since the bioavailability is less. FDA continue to impose strict regulations to make requires that generic drugs work very rapid and effective similar to that of the original brand-name products. Developed nations like United States exhibit both direct and indirect pricing policies. Direct pricing includes maximum retail pricing, negotiated prices, discounted offer pricing whereas indirect pricing includes the index pricing based on international price comparison charts.

50–80% generic medicine is considered as “fairly high” and above 80% is considered as “high” availability.Hence, innovative generic products are observed to have increased availability than branded ones. The largely sold generic medicines are comparatively high to low availability. On the other hand, less priced generics were constantly high in availability throughout the United States (Ganga et al, 2011).The high availability for less priced generic medicines for next 6 years may stimulate the purchasing power of the majority of the patients. Moreover, Innovator products of certain medicine were not available all through the study period. These products might have not been imported into the country due to lack of demand. In a study conducted by Ganga et al (2011), the median availability of generic medicines was 50% throughoutin privately owned pharmaceutical stores. The median availability of less priced generic equivalents comparative to branded drugs was highly available more than 75% during 2006-2009. (Publix, 2018).

Conclusion

The above price clearly points out that Walmart has quite high pricing for Metformin 500 (30 capsules) and its generic brand Glucophage 500 mg (30 capsules). Publix pharmacy has less pricing than other two markets. Pharmaceutical companies market similar drugs under different brand names in various countries (Publix, n.d). Online pharmacies have fewer prices for chosen medicine rather than grocery and hypermarket stores. The skyrocketing cost of medicine has been a matter of concern among health experts. Type 2 Diabetes is more commonly prevalent around the world and cost of metformin is observed to be seamlessly high rather than its generic medicine or over the counter alternative Berberin 500 mg. The chosen companies have provided $4 value program, club membership to reduce the cost of the medicine. However, such programs could not be helpful for total population. Pricing issues still persist in United States due to the lack of proper implementation of regulation. Price of medicines are principally regulated by manufacturer, exporters and privately owned pharmas. The maximum retail prices of medicines are hence vary geographically. Healthcare markets are currently began to act like competitive market. Corporate phama companies fix their prices based on their individual profit margin and act as competitive market which renders the healthcare market still competitive. Moreover, price of generic and branded medicine multiply over the period of years in similar way of multiplication in order to stay competitive in the market.

Leave a comment


Captcha

Related :-