The Pharmaceutical Scam That Could Cost Your Family Thousands

Posted by nickdupree – July 18, 2009

Last Friday, I was on the Medicare Part D(rugs) web site (which is possibly a conspiracy to break the spirit of the elderly and disabled, and make us give up on life) tabulating my medications and their costs. While crunching the numbers, I found that (as Mom had faced when I was living at home) the antidepressant Lexapro was the biggest expense, totaling over half the monthly Nick prescription costs!! Lexapro is $134.92 and, because it’s a brand name antidepressant, Medicare Part D will always make you pay 50%, or $67.46, per month!

I did some research on how this burden can be alleviated. Here’s what I learned: no generic Lexapros are available because Forest Laboratories, Inc. got a judge to extend their patent (I wonder how they’d defend that). No generic versions will be able to compete on the market until March 14, 2012.

Further, I learned the entire Lexapro franchise is A HUGE

A Picture of Llexapro tablets

A Picture of Lexapro tablets

SCAM. Why? They had a drug, Celexa, and its patent ran out in 2003, opening it to generic competition. So they stripped out only the active molecule in citalopram (Celexa) and marketed it as A NEW DRUG, Lexapro! Lexapro is simply the active ingredient in Celaxa! It’s essentially the same drug! IT’S THE SAME ACTIVE INGREDIENT! Forest Laboratories has always CLAIMED that the new Lexapro with only the single active molecule is more effective than citalopram (Celexa), and their marketing convinced many doctors of this (and then doctors convinced credulous patients). This, despite the fact that most independent studies show Celexa is just as effective as Lexapro in most cases (source). Celexa’s patent expired in ‘03, but they’ve been able to keep the profits rolling in by slightly modifying it and selling it as a new drug. Within the industry this is called “evergreening,” and that the FDA allows it is a serious travesty.

This scam cost my family thousands. Since Celexa and Lexapro are basically the same, I’ll try to switch to GENERIC Celexa once home, and cut my bill in half.

PROTECT YOUR FAMILY from these scams! Here is a list of “new” meds that are just the stripped out active molecule (or single enantiomer) of older meds! Don’t buy the “new” version, get an older generic with the same ingredient, and save your money!

Racemic Mixture Single Enantiomer
Zyrtec Xyzal
Ritalin Focalin
Celexa Lexapro
Provigil Nuvigil
Floxin Levaquin
Prilosec Nexium
Ventolin Xopenex
Imovane Lunesta

Source: Single-enantiomer drugs

Make sure you’re buying generic versions of the drugs on the LEFT, not the scam “new versions” on the right! Talk to your doctor about switching to lower-cost generics. You could be receiving the same clinical benefits at a fraction of the cost!

PROTECT YOURSELF!! It seems the government is in the pocket of moneyed interests and won’t protect us from these scams.

Nick

Related Bloggery:
Scott’s Web Log: Evergreening Does Not Refer to Trees

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  • dansadler
    If you all are interested in how the scams work, just buy or check out from the library like I did;
    Overdo$ed America
    The broken promise of American medicine by John Abramson, M.D.
    ISBN 0-06-056852-6
    Dewey Decimal # 310.973 Published 2004
    It is a great read, especially for anybody interested it how the pharmacutical industry works.
    I highly recommend this book!
  • I LOVE it! Celexa PLUS. I'm actually cracking up at the thought of a marketing meeting at a drug company about that.

    Pharmacists usually know all this too, and can be terrific sources of information regarding identical, or therapeutically similar substitutions.
  • I hear what you're saying, and agree that not everything will work for everyone. But I still believe it's a blatant scam, and that the FDA should not allow companies to market the active ingredient only, and claim it is a new product. That is a very deceptive practice. They should only be able to market Lexapro as Celexa Plus, for example, and that will give patients and doctors an opportunity to HONESTLY evaluate if trying this new version of Celexa would be of clinical benefit.
  • Just because I went to med school and tend to write with a free drug company pen (those fat padded ones are so gentle on my knobbly fingers) doesn't mean that I automatically give evil big Pharma advice. I do feel compelled to spout a few party line caveats.

    In general, the generic substitution works, but not always. Some people do react to the inactive isomer in a rather unpleasant way. In other words, some people do every well on Lexapro but react in a very poopy fashion to citalopram/Celexa. I'm a big fan of boring old methylphenidate ER (generic, extended release Ritalin), but those stimulant salts can be weird, especially in kids, who react to them in different ways, with some unpredictable side effects. The branded medication isn't ALWAYS necessarily bad, although in my experience, 98 times out of 100 generics are just fine. And cheap.

    Just sayin', talk to your physician about it. I'm always willing to give a generic a whirl, recognizing that cheap doesn't ALWAYS mean better when it comes to medication. Although I recognize that cheap can often be the difference between taking a medication and not taking a medication.
  • I take Lexapro. I think that will change.

    Also, talked to Aloha about all of the problems you're dealing with. I noted that firearms always work in solving problems quickly, so I will be getting on a bus soon to solve it all!
  • The Prilosec / Nexium scam really is incredible. How'd they ever get away with it? If they wanted to market the active ingredient only, why wait until Nexium? They could've formulated Prilosec that way from the beginning! But no, they wanted to wait and use that as an evergreening ploy.
  • One of my transplant drugs is about to go generic and the maker has a huge campaign to convince patients that the brand name is better or even essential, I made the mistake of signing up on their site because they promised non-existent gifts and have been inundated ever since with propaganda. My part B. pays for all my transplant drugs so it doesn't cost me but I will request the generic as soon as it is out because my transplant center probably won't, UVA prescribes the most expensive drugs as a rule unless you tell them money matters. How I paid over 700 dollars for Prilosec in a prescription last year........now I buy OTC generic and save money even though I pay for it myself without coverage....
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