The first generic versions of Zonisamide Caps 25mg 14 were launched after loss of exclusivity in November 2015. However, in the run-up to this, the prices being offered to pharmacists and dispensing doctors for the brand declined from about £8.00 to about £7.40. This may be because of parallel import competition against the UK brand.
After generic launch the prices for the generic fell rapidly, reaching £2.35 in February 2018. The lowest price during this period was £2.01 in November 2018.
Then, in October 2020 a major shortage interrupted supply and resulted in rapid price rises. The price jumped from £2.52 in September 2020, to £4.77 in October, £5.97 in November and by February 2021 the price was at £7.32. Thereafter prices stayed high until a decline started in February 2023, with prices reaching £5.85 in October 2023. It does look as if prices will continue to decline, provided of course that there are no further shortage shocks.
During this period of uncertainty, the price for the parallel import has remained more or less constant at about £6.00, but the UK brand has almost completely disappeared from the competitive market.
Charles Joynson, WaveData MD, comments……
The period up until October 2020 was reasonably normal, or as expected, for a generic launch and shows what can happen to parallel imports of UK brand prices during periods of instability. Normally the parallel import persists for longer than the UK brand, simply because it has a better chance of competing with low generic prices. However, the UK brand normally peters out in the face of both generic and parallel import low price competition.