Re:How MDMA Went from Club Drug to ‘Breakthrough Therapy’
by monocasa on Thursday October 19, 2017 @04:05PM
(#15511119)
> Second, yes, a doctor can write "DAW - dispense as written", however most insurance companies won't cover the originator drug if a generic is available. The patient is then on the hook for the entire cost. That's a strong incentive to go generic.
I've heard rumors of the insurance companies backing off of this stance in the past few years. Essentially, since the ACA puts a hard cap on profit margins, insurance companies are looking for ways to spend more so they can have the same margins on a bigger pie and still increase real profit year after year. Policies like relaxing generic vs proprietary let's them achieve that in a controlled manner.
Re:How MDMA Went from Club Drug to ‘Breakthrough Therapy’
by refurb on Thursday October 19, 2017 @07:22PM
(#15512383)
Wouldn't that take collusion between insurance companies? If I'm Google and United says "you're premium went up 20% this year", but Aetna is only 10%, Google is going to change insurance companies.
First off, getting a new drug approved is not "preventing generics". Generics need a new drug approve before they can get their generic approved (since they based their application off the original drug's data). This is a feature, not a flaw of the system. Without some guarantee of market exclusivity, nobody will spend on R&D to get approval.
Second, yes, a doctor can write "DAW - dispense as written", however most insurance companies won't cover the originator drug if a generic is available. The patient is then on the hook for the entire cost. That's a strong incentive to go generic.
Finally, unless the new administration method (patch, etc) has some benefit over the generic, doctors won't prescribe it and insurance company's won't cover it.