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Charles Joynson shares some good news for diabetic patients and pharmacies.
Repaglinide is an oral antihyperglycemic agent used for the treatment of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.
The average market price for this medicine normally hovers around the £5 mark but in late 2019 the drug tariff started to come down from over £10.42 toward £5.47 by February 2021.
Generics Bulletin, UK Price Watch September
Check out the latest UK Price Watch article in the Generics Bulletin for analysis and insight on September’s product launches, the biggest risers, the biggest fallers and the fastest movers…. with market data provided by WaveData.
A look back at NHS Reorganisations
At last week’s EMIG Quarterly meeting Donal Markey, Assistant director of Programmes, Transformation and Performance, said that the Irish health service had been reorganised just once while England’s NHS had been reorganised 7 times.
As we are in our Silver Anniversary year and nostalgically looking back over our business, we thought a look back over the major NHS reorganisations would be interesting. Here Charles Joynson highlights the key shifts in governance, structure and ideology.
Squeezing profitability till the pips squeak with Ibuprofen Tabs 600mg 84s
There seem to be a number of things going on with this product in the long-term. The first thing we can see is that market prices rose dramatically to April 2020 at which point a Concession was announced and an increase in the Drug Tariff introduced fairly shortly afterwards.
Charles Joynson, WaveData MD, attended this month’s EMIG Quarterly meeting, loaded with interesting content like traversing stepping stones to reach the NHS of the future.
Leslie Galloway, EMIG Chairman, shared his analysis of VPAG. Here’s Charles’ key takeaways:
· The NHS VPAG rebate is £1bn over 3 years and so is a fixed rebate with risk share.
· Global Pharma CEOs have asked for lower rebates and a better deal, that has not been accepted by the NHS so the current situation is a no deal stalemate.
· Leslie thinks the rebate should be capped not fixed, which would allow for forecasting and budgetary flexibility.
How badly are pharmacists being squeezed on generics?
Charles Joynson, WaveData MD, decided to have a look at the differences between the average market price for generics and the English drug tariff. He wanted to know if the gap between the two was being squeezed, resulting in some of the misery pharmacists are going through at the moment.
When does unprofitability turn into a serious shortage?
Four times over the last 10 years, free market competition between the manufacturers of Olanzapine tablets drove the price to a level where profit was impossible and withdrawal is the only option.
Olanzapine Tabs on a Hair Trigger
Over the last 10 years Olanzapine tablets have suffered four shortages along with price spikes and concessions. The most severe of these was in 2017 when prices for the 20mg 28 tablet pack went up as high as £115 on something that normally sells for £2.
The Birth and Death of Parallel Imported Isotrex Gel 0.05%
Isotrex Gel 0.05% was first launched in the UK by Stiefel Laboratories Ltd on 10 November 2002. It was primarily used to treat acne vulgaris in adolescents and contained isotretinoin, a compound similar to Vitamin A. The first parallel import appeared in the UK in July 2005, which means that this product had 2 1/2 year honeymoon period without serious competition.
As we celebrate 25 years of WaveData, here’s our story…..
It was a crazy idea, that generic manufacturers would be able to monitor each other’s sales prices.
Back in 1999, when Charles Joynson was working in the Business Information department at Baker Norton, he was tasked with acquiring some competitor Pharmacy Price Lists. The business, and its parent company Norton Healthcare (later Ivax and even later Teva) wanted to find out what their competitors were selling out at.
Generics Bulletin Price Watch July 2025
Check out the latest UK Price Watch article in the Generics Bulletin for analysis and insight on May’s product launches, the biggest risers, the biggest fallers and the fastest movers…. with market data provided by WaveData.
A Parallel Import Life Cycle of Two Halves
Today we thought we’d have a look at Pletal (Cilostazol) for which we can see the appearance and disappearance of parallel imports in the UK. Pletal was first launched into the UK in 2007 and is used for the treatment of intermittent claudication, a condition associated with leg pain and poor circulation. The first sign of parallel imports was in September 2009 with a single data point, which may have been importers testing the market for the first time.
The Life and Death of Imported Provigil
Provigil was launchd in the UK in March 1998 and it is used to promote wakefulness in patients with narcolepsy, a condition characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness. The first sign of parallel imports being sold into the UK was in November 2001, and though a trickle at first it grew to a peak of over 120 price list inclusions each month by September 2006, which meant that pharmacists and dispensing doctors had lots of opportunity to buy the imported version of the UK brand.
Changes in the number of drug tariff products
Between 2001 and 2022 the number of generics in the English drug tariff increased from 1682 to 3955. Most of this was driven by increased patient demand and new product launches to cope with this demand.
The Life and Death of a Parallel Import
The WaveData Team wanted to find an example of a parallel import appearing in the UK, it’s birth in competition with the UK brand, and it’s final demise once generics had hit the market.
We looked at all the different constituent molecules for which we had been able to collect parallel import information over the last 25 years. There were quite a large group of these, but we chose one that had very high numbers of market offers on price lists to dispensing doctors and pharmacies roughly in the middle of the 25 year period.
Drug or Device? Have devices increased their presence in the last 25 years?
Each month WaveData collects the prices of medicines and devices from pharmacies and dispensing doctors. These come from the price lists and invoices sent to these accounts by their suppliers. So what we’re looking at here is the ‘share of voice’ rather than market share, which specifically means the amount of effort put into advertising these products to accounts.
Brands and Generics. How has their ‘share of voice’ changed in 25 years?
Each month WaveData collect the prices of brands and generics from pharmacies and dispensing doctors. These come from the price lists and invoices sent to these accounts by their suppliers. This means that what we’re looking at here is the ‘share of voice’ rather than market share, which specifically means the amount of effort put into advertising these products to accounts.
Generics Bulletin Price Watch
Check out the latest UK Price Watch article in the Generics Bulletin for analysis and insight on May’s product launches, the biggest risers, the biggest fallers and the fastest movers…. with market data provided by WaveData.
Sitagliptin Long Term Price Analysis – After the Fall, Loss of Exclusivity and Generic Entry
Before December 2022 when generics were launched, all prescriptions, branded and generic would have been dispensed as MSD’s Januvia Tabs 100mg 28. This explains why the generic and branded lines on the graph follow the same trend. The green PI average price line does follow the other two, but prices do seem to have been slightly higher over the seven years leading up to loss of exclusivity. Pharmacists often assume that parallel imports are cheaper than UK packs, which is not always the case.
The Terrible Twos
Pramipexole Tabs 88mcg 30 is one of those products that suffers regular price bounces. In this case it seems to be almost exactly every two years, which in our minds fits with manufacturing cycles.
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