Cubic News

Another Blockbuster Falls: Generic Plavix® Now Available

February 2012

After over 8 years of patent challenges between the Canadian generic manufacturing company Apotex and the product’s innovator, sanofi-aventis, clopidogrel (generic for Plavix®) received its Notice of Compliance from Health Canada and is now available on the market in Canada – up to 7 years in advance of all patents expiring.

Clopidogrel is a commonly used oral tablet prescribed by physicians to prevent heart attacks and strokes in susceptible individuals (i.e. those with heart disease, blood circulation disease or recent stroke) by preventing detrimental blood clots.

According to our Cubic Health national benchmarking data, Plavix® was the 12th most costly drug to private drug plans in Canada in 2010. Thus, the introduction of generic clopidogrel could translate into material cost savings for plans – especially considering treatment with this medication is typically prolonged (i.e. spanning years of therapy). For example, looking at the relative pricing of these products in Ontario, generic clopidogrel is currently priced at 35% of the price of the brand (i.e. $0.97 per tablet for the generic, compared to $2.77 per tablet for the brand). As a result, plans with mandatory generic substitution policies in place are well positioned to take advantage of immediate and future plan savings with clopidogrel. This is an example of how plan management can allow for financial flexibility to ensure plan sustainability and/or provide funds for investments in other areas of the plan to enhance the health and wellbeing of plan members. This is also an example of how plans can avoid making difficult decisions such as placing annual limits on coverage, increasing cost-sharing to members, and/or excluding coverage of certain types of products.

The upside of aggressive patent litigation by generic companies is that plan sponsors can benefit from lower ingredient costs in cases like this. However, there is also a significant win for the brand-name pharmaceutical companies that understand they will eventually lose patent protection on these drugs: cost savings in areas like this provide plan sponsors with the ability to fund more expensive specialty medications and other innovations for which less expensive therapeutic alternatives are not available.

While events like generic Plavix coming to market may seem not particularly noteworthy to the average plan sponsor, it is important to consider the win-win-win scenario for plan sponsors and their members, generic pharmaceutical companies and brand-name pharmaceutical companies. All three stakeholder groups depend on each other to keep the cycle of innovation moving forward – innovation that benefits every member within the plan.

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