Charles Joynson takes a look at the long term changes to the commercial behaviour of Gabapentin Caps 300mg 100
When Gabapentin Caps 300mg 100 were launched way back in December 2003 prices came down from over £40 to less than £10 in just three years. It could have been this shock to the product price that resulted in a series of four price bounces and shortages or it could’ve been the disruption to reimbursement with the English Drug Tariff going up and down like a yo-yo in the early years. Whether it was both of these causes or just one, the erratic behaviour of the English Drug Tariff would not have helped.
The price bounces happened every three and a half years until the last one in 2017. There was a very slight price rise in 2022 and a couple of months of Concession, but not significant enough to show on our chart. So what was it that stopped the price bounces?
From the 1st of April 2019 Gabapentin was re classified as a Schedule 3 Controlled Drug under the misuse of drugs regulation 2001. This increased the level of complexity for Pharmacies and Prescribers. It also stopped the rise in the number of tablets being prescribed each month. At the peak in 2019, 41 million 300mg Gabapentin capsules were being prescribed each month. This has declined moderately to about 37 million per month.
This change may have been enough to stop the price bounces, but from the chart we can see that the intensity of the bounce was reducing as the years went by.
There was no significant change to the reimbursement, the difference between the market price and the reimbursement price has always been relatively small apart from in the very early years. So, it’s not a tremendously profitable product.
It is likely that the shock of the reclassification lessened the degree of price variability. This added complexity means that new manufacturers are less likely to jump in and produce stock at short notice. Prices have continued to decline, and we may get to a situation where manufacturers withdraw if there is no profit to be made with this product.