Cheap Psych Meds For All!

OK, I am being sarcastic with my headline, but there was a fascinating bit on WSJ's Health Blog yesterday wherein Wyeth talked about making Pristiq--the Daughter of Effexor; it's the well-known anti-depressant's metabolite--available to consumers for a 20 percent discount over Effexor. Effexor goes off-patent soon and the company wants to capture market share with its old-wine-in-a-new-bottle anti-depressant stat. The company is reportedly going to make Pristiq the focus of its primary care sales force (good luck Wyeth reps!). The pill will sell for $3.41 per dose. No word yet on whether it has the same ugly withdrawal profile as does its daddy (it's only been on the market about two months).

I have to think that not too many doctors will bite on this approach. A 20 percent discount means a month's supply will save someone about $25 a month, give or take, and that doesn't strike me as a particularly strong "benefit" of the drug. Besides, when's the last time you saw a doctor prescribe on the basis of saving someone 25 clams?

The "new" drug has already been criticized by Danny Carlat, a psychiatrist at Tufts University, who once used to do doctor talks for Effexor, because it doesn't work particularly well.

Meanwhile, my local supermarket--that would be QFC--has its checkers wearing "Ask me about $4 generics" ribbons. So I asked one of my checkers and, yes, Kroger (QFC's much-disliked owner) is taking a page out of Wal Mart and Costco and pressing cheap generics on customers. Not that there's anything wrong with cheap generics if they work for you, but I feel like we've reached a point in our culture where we are being pressed to buy, consider and otherwise think about pharmaceutical drugs at every turning point in our daily lives--on TV, in newspapers, on websites and now at the supermarket. In my case, I'd actually have to go to another QFC to partake since my QFC doesn't even have a pharmacy. (I checked their generics list and it includes several anti-depressants plus Haldol and Thorazine in generic forms.)

And law enforcement always paints the ugly picture of street dealers pushing drugs? Sheesh, they are children by comparison, at least when it comes to DTC marketing.