An alternative to increasing healthcare costs

In an era of increasing health care costs, physicians and patients alike are finding ways by which the financial burden of being sick will be lessened.

In the United States and even in the Philippines, the concept of generic prescription is being recommended to give the patient therapeutic options with the aim of reducing the cost of prescribed drugs.

One brand may be substituted for another brand by the prescribing physician provided the alternative brand has been shown to be bioequivalent in potency to the standard drug.

Generic prescription is based on the supposition that therapeutic equivalence, palatability and equivalent safety or adverse reactions exist among the various brands of a prescribed drug.

Bioequivalence means that a drug, given in the same dosage, produces the same blood concentrations over the same time period as the reference or originator drug.

Of all the tests used to determine generic equivalence, the American Council on Science and Health reports that the most useful is the bioequivalence test.

Normally, the innovator drug and its generic counterpart are given in a highly structured setting to a small number of healthy subjects – almost always fasting young male adults – and blood concentrations of the drug are measured over time after just one dosage.

If it is found that the blood levels for each product are similar or are 20 percent similar to each other, the Food and Drug Administration will declare the alternative brand bioequivalent to the innovator product.

In the Philippines, the concept of pharmacoeconomics, which aims to deliver high-quality and affordable medicines, is slowly gaining popularity.

Similar to generic prescription, pharmacoeconomics’ underlying principle is to reduce healthcare cost specifically for patients with chronic diseases.

Unlike generic prescription, however, pharmacoeconomics takes into consideration the drugs’ efficacy in treating the medical conditions for which they were prescribed for.

In pharmacoeconomics, the price of a drug does not show its real cost. A brand of medicine marketed at a lower price but is not effective may cause additional expenses in terms of hospitalization. The complications which may arise from the use of an ineffective drug will also result in diminished income and productivity of a patient.

The idea of pharmacoeconomics is to help the patient in being able to afford his medicines so he can take his drug for a longer period of time or for as long as necessary to treat his medical problems.

Pharmacoeconomics offers an alternative to the more expensive drugs, with the goal of making sure that the medicine is taken by the patient strictly according to his doctor’s prescription.

Choosing drugs which are therapeutic equivalents is of increasing concern, especially now that chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, tuberculosis and asthma have reached epidemic proportions.

Through pharmacoeconomics, clinicians and patients have an affordable treatment option which is proven to be safe, effective and bioequivalent to the originator product.

The various divisions of Unilab, a leading pharmaceutical company in the country, is committed to helping improve healthcare delivery to the average Filipino family by providing high-quality and affordable medicines for common medical problems. Its commitment is reflected in its slogan: "Mga gamot na umuubra sa presyong ‘di sobra!"