Posted by West on June 21, 2009, at 9:52:48
In reply to Re: Has Pristiq proven to be clinically useful?, posted by sowhysosad on April 19, 2009, at 13:46:22
I just checked the prices and teva's rodomel xl 75mg capsules are the same price as wyeth's efexor ones - £22.50. So I'm being given a generic purely for the sake of it. Thanks NHS.
> Yeah, there are clearly people benefitting from Pristiq that couldn't tolerate Effexor. Just because it's a patent-extending, profit-maximising exercise by Wyeth, it doesn't necessarily follow that the resulting product is worthless or of dubious quaity.
>
> Perhaps "capitalist business practices = EVIL" in some people's minds. Sure, the quest for profit does lead to some unethical behaviour amongst the drug companies, but it drives innovation too.
>
> As I mentioned elsewhere, the UK health service (so they don't have to subsidise an on-patent drug) claim that there's no qualitative difference between citalopram and escitalopram, but escitalopram is obviously better for many people. The subtext is "oh it's a patent-extender so it must be bogus".
>
> > I wish the idea that this is a patent extender would go away. Desvenlafaxine is a specific active metabolite of venlafaxine. It's believed to be responsible for the bulk of the antidepressant effect of venlafaxine. The side effects are mostly produced by other metabolites. In simplified terms.
poster:West
thread:891545
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090620/msgs/902416.html