Comments on: New Combo Drugs: The One for Two Deal

By: Bill the diabetesdoc

Bill the diabetesdoc — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 00:58:49 +0000

Amy:
Sort of reminds me of someone’s bright idea for a combination: add multivitamins to cheap wine so the winos who drink only a liquid diet would get their vitamins…

I discussed the pro’s and con’s, and list the available diabetes combo pills, at
http://www.diabetesmonitor.com/combo.htm

By: paul

paul — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 13:51:50 +0000

Also consider Pfizer’s upcoming cholesterol medication Torcetrapib, which combines Lipitor with Torcetrapib. They did not plan to release the drug alone- so that it can’t be combined with other companys’ products. With loss of patent on Merck’s Zocor, the sales of Lipitor are falling becuase there’s a generic alternative available at 1/10th the cost. By adding Torcetrapib, Pfizer could have extend Lipitor’s shelf life by another few years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/07/business/07pfizer.html?ex=1154145600&en=15cb7a914cf7cea9&ei=5070

After seeing the rage of cardiologists, now they’re singing a different tune:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/business/26drug.html?_r=3&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

(links courtesy of PharmaGossip: http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/)

Pfizer deserves credit for doing the right thing here, because it is the FDA’s job to stop these kinds of things- and they didn’t object to the initial push for the combo-only pill.

By: JasonJayhawk

JasonJayhawk — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 06:05:32 +0000

If this new drug is the “first-line response”, then I guess exercise and diet are shuffled back as second-line responses.

Time to call our stock brokers….

By: Kathleen Weaver

Kathleen Weaver — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 03:24:54 +0000

I take Vytorian, an heavily advertised combo drug. When it first came out, I honestly didn’t think it would be an option for me since it wasn’t on the formulary, but both Zocor and Zetia was, but my doctor convinced me to give it a try.

Amazingly enough Medco does treat it as a formulary drug, which saves me a copay every 3 months to the tune of $62.50 a pop.

So it DOES benefit me.

It also comes in the common dosages so it should work well for the majority of patients.

By: AmyT

AmyT — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 00:09:59 +0000

Jo,
I see your point. Come to think of it, I have a medicine cabinet full of expensive pills that my doctors “tried” with me at various points in time. So if even one portion of the combo isn’t right for you, you’re stuck with yet another useless medical product. Aargh!!

By: Jo

Jo — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 23:12:53 +0000

The major disadvantage I see is what if you need more of one drug than the other? Then what? Another pill? I started out with Avandia .. added metiformin, switch to Actos when Avandia quit working and them maxed out on both drugs. I added Lantus and now only take Actos, at a much reduced dosage, “when needed”. My major diabetes control is through diet, metiformin and Lantus. So a pill with 2 drugs wouldn’t have done me any good at all!