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Prescription Drugs OriginalDrugs.com, founded in 2002, is a free informational website about medications, natural health products, common illnesses and their treatment methods. This is not a drugstore and we do not sell anything. We closely follow two important processes: drug patent expirations and RX-to-OTC switches. These processes are different in their essence, but from the consumer's point of view they allow to significantly cut the healthcare expenses. Patent expirations The next two to four years are an important time frame. During this period many of the top selling drugs of the major pharmaceutical companies will go off patent. For example, here is a list of patents that expire in 2011:
Between 2012 and 2013 will expire patents of such top-selling drugs as Advair (GlaxoSmithKline), Diovan (Novartis), Lovenox (Sanofi-Aventis), Plavix (Bristol-Myers Squibb), Seroquel (AstraZeneca), Singulair (Merck). Patent expirations mean that equivalents of these expensive medications will be offered significantly cheaper. This might be not accepted well by pharmaceutical companies, because they lose exclusive rights to sell their medications and as a result lose their profits. But for the patients this is quite an opposite, they won't need to spend a fortune on their treatments. Rx-to-OTC switches The process known as “Rx-to-OTC switch” means transferring of medications from prescription to over-the-counter (OTC) status. Medicines that were safe enough and where labeling can be developed so that they can be marketed safely and effectively are candidates to become OTC. Thanks to this ongoing process, during the last 30 years more than 90 pharmaceuticals that were RX-only already became OTC and are available free of restrictions, even more switches are expected to follow in the coming years. |
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