| Topic: |
Sociology > Depression |
| User: |
"Doug Reding" |
| Date: |
12 Apr 2005 12:02:22 AM |
| Object: |
Lunesta should cost $20 per month: we are being ROBBED. |
Here is the dirty little secret about the $120 per month drug Lunesta:
THIS DRUG IS NOTHING NEW.
In fact, it is far from new. It's been around for over 10 years. You can
get it in Canada for $20 per month where it's been available for a decade.
In Sweden I'm told the price is about $10 per month. It is most commonly
sold under the brand name Imovane. The chemical name is zopiclone, and it's
been around for 13 years. Lunesta is nothing more than the s-isomer of this
13 year old drug. Lunesta is nothing short of legal larceny.
Specifically, Lunesta is the s-isomer of zopiclone. The s-isomer is thought
to be the active of the two isomers (r and s). Lunesta comes in 2 and 3mg
tablets. Zopiclone tablets most commonly are 7.5mg. A 7.5mg zopiclone
tablet will have a certain amount of both the s-isomer and r-isomer. If 3mg
is the most commonly effective dose of Lunesta, then it is highly likely
that a 7.5mg zopiclone tablet CONTAINS roughly 3mg of the s-isomer, which is
now being sold as Lunesta. The remainder would be the r-isomer. The only
way that Lunesta could be ANY different from standard zopiclone is if the
r-isomer is in some way problematic, causes side effects, interferes with
the efficacy of the s-isomer, etc. There is absolutely no evidence that
this is the case.
Sepracor has taken an existing drug which works very well, isolated an
isomer from it, and gotten approval to sell their "new" drug in the United
States for $4 per pill. In this way they will legally fleece the American
public out of BILLIONS of dollars annually.
This story appears to get downright criminal. Guess who makes Imovane /
zopiclone? AVENTIS! Yes, the SAME Sanofi-Aventis that owns Ambien. Sepracor
came to an agreement with Aventis in October 1999 giving it the right to
develop and market the s-isomer of zopiclone in the United States. From the
Sepracor website http://www.sepracor.com/about/agreements.html:
"In October 1999, Sepracor entered into an agreement with Rhone-Poulenc
Rorer SA (RPR), a unit of Rhone-Poulenc SA, now sanofi-aventis, whereby
Sepracor exclusively licensed RPR's preclinical, clinical and post-marketing
surveillance data package relating to zopiclone, its isomers and
metabolites, to develop, make, use and sell eszopiclone in the United
States. Zopiclone, marketed by RPR under the brand names of IMOVANEŽ and
AMOBANŽ for the treatment of insomnia, is available in approximately 80
countries worldwide but has never been registered for the U.S market."
Why Aventis is so "worried" about Lunesta puzzles me. They are so "worried"
by Lunesta that they are trying to get approval for chronic use of Ambien, a
use which Lunesta is approved for. Ambien is not suitable for chronic use
(in most people anyway, whereas zopiclone is suited to this purpose in most
people) and Aventis knows this. They are also releasing a "timed-release"
version (what an innovation!!) in response to Lunesta which will get them a
new patent. If Aventis was so worried about the s-isomer of their own drug
being sold in the United States to compete with Ambien, then why didn't
Aventis keep zopiclone for themselves? I smell a RAT. "The fix is in."
However you want to look at it, something is going on here that STINKS. And
it's going to cost us BILLIONS, whoever is most to blame for it.
Why are we being asked to pay $120 per month for a drug that should cost us
$20 per month, and one that should have been available a decade ago? A
better question: WHY IS THIS TYPE OF *THEFT* ALLOWED TO GO ON IN THE FIRST
PLACE??? I have a few ideas about this. I realize I am going out on a limb
and opening myself up to who knows what, but I believe I am doing the right
thing here:
1) This was clearly by design. If s-zopiclone is approvable than so is
zopiclone, which has been approved in over 80 countries. American consumers
should have had zopiclone made available to them long ago, like the rest of
the world.
2) Why have millions of suffering people in the United States been denied
this highly effective medication for the past decade? I believe I have been
made to suffer for over 10 years along with MILLIONS of other people who
cannot sleep well no matter what they do, all so some unethical drug
companies can fleece the suffering out of billions upon billions of dollars.
The FDA is clearly aware of the problem and is complacent about it.
3) I find it no coincidence that s-zopiclone is introduced into the United
States at a time nearing the end of Ambien's patent. Ambien's patent
expires October 21, 2006.
4) By WITHHOLDING zopiclone from American consumers, and instead providing
us with the vastly inferior Ambien, Aventis and their partner Sepracor set
themselves up to own the patent on what *was* "the" sleeping pill in the
United States (Ambien) and what WILL be "the" sleeping pill in the United
States (Lunesta) thus giving them a near monopoly on the sleep drug market
in the United States for double the time they would have had if they had
done the RIGHT thing and introduced zopiclone here in the first place.
Granted, Aventis does not own s-zopiclone outright, but clearly they have a
large interest in it.
5) What about importing zopiclone from Canada or elsewhere? Well, that WAS
possible for about 10 years or so. But, within weeks of Lunesta making it's
way into American pharmacies, the DEA scheduled the $20 per month zopiclone,
A DRUG WHICH WAS UNSCHEDULED AND IMPORTABLE FOR MANY YEARS. What a strange
coincidence! The rats at the FDA and DEA reek with a filthy stench every bit
as vile as the ones emanating from the pharmaceutical companies. "The fix
is in" really does apply I think!
The absolute WORST thing about this, and the thing that boils my blood more
than anything, is NOT the fact that certain companies will be STEALING
billions of dollars from American consumers. What boils my blood the MOST
about this is the fact that WE COULD HAVE HAD ZOPICLONE HERE 10 YEARS AGO.
You and I and everyone else with chronic insomnia could have been sleeping
well every night for the past ten years if we respond to this drug the way
most people do. Instead, GREED caused it to be withheld and we were forced
to suffer with our insomnia for an entire decade, using benzodiazepines or
Ambien and Sonata for ten years with very poor results, tolerance,
addiction, rebound insomnia and other nasty side effects of these inferior
medications. Here in the United States we suffered with only marginally
effective solutions available. All the while, the HIGHLY EFFECTIVE
zopiclone was being used all over the globe, but kept from Americans so we
could be fleeced out of billions a decade later. It is sickening and wrong,
and we need to do something about it.
I am not going to leave this alone. Far from it. However, if I am
successful these companies and the FDA and DEA will have far greater than me
to worry about. After I post this, I am going to FAX this to the two
individuals who I think can really put this into the public eye, and
hopefully will:
1) Clark Howard: America's #1 consumer advocate. His talk show is all about
protecting people from getting ripped off, and helping people make the most
of their finances. It's the most useful show on radio and it's on from
1-4pm EST. No one has ever done a finer job protecting consumers than Clark
Howard.
www.clarkhoward.com
Phone: 1-877-87-CLARK
FAX: 404-607-8255
2) Dr. Dean Edell: "America's Doctor". Dr. Edell hosts one of the biggest
talk shows in the country, on daily from 10-11am EST. I have heard Dr.
Edell talk about a similar situation involving Claritin and Clarinex.
Claritin goes off patent, out comes Clarinex. Guess what? Clarinex is an
isomer of Claritin and no more effective when proper dosages are used! Sound
familiar? I cannot find a FAX number for Dr. Dean Edell. I am hoping that
Clark Howard will take up this issue and then contact Dr. Edell.
http://www.healthcentral.com
There are many examples of this type of out and out THEFT in the
pharmaceutical industry. I am not anti-pharmaceutical in any way. What I
AM against are unethical practices which allow companies to legally steal
billions of dollars from consumers. I would suggest that drug patent laws
be changed to prevent this from happening:
1) I certainly believe that NOVEL compounds should be patentable. However,
I do NOT think that new patents should be granted for isomers of existing
drugs unless there is a *VERY* clear difference between the action of the
isomer, and the action of the parent compound. This would put a stop to the
nonsense that is taking an old drug when it comes off of patent and getting
a new patent for an isomer. This is simply getting a new patent on an old
drug unless there is a very clear difference. In essence, it is a loophole
which allows pharmaceutical companies to circumvent patent laws and receive
multiple patents on the same compound. Even when an isomer is clearly
different, I may suggest this be disallowed in all circumstances as the drug
companies who develop these compounds should KNOW if one isomer is more
effective than the parent compound and they should release the isomer ONLY
if that's the case. I'm sure there are plenty of instances where pharma
knew that one isomer was the active constituent of a compound, yet they
chose to introduce the parent compound first planning well in advance to get
a second patent on the isomer.
2) In the same way as isomers of existing compounds should not qualify for
new patents, DELIVERY SYSTEMS should not count for new patents, either.
Why, you ask? Well let's use Ambien as an example, purely hypothetically:
A) Original Ambien tablets introduced = first patent
B) Uh oh, Ambien patent about to expire! We better release TIME RELEASED
Ambien now. Guess what? SECOND PATENT!
C) Uh oh, our time-release Ambien patent is about to expire! We better
have SUBLINGUAL Ambien created and marketed now as being the most effective
Ambien ever. THIRD PATENT!
D) Geez, our sublingual patent is about to expire. What should we do
now? I KNOW! How about TRANSDERMAL Ambien and a FOURTH PATENT??
E) Ad infinitum.... (on and on into eternity....)
Here's a potential reading list for people as angry as me. I haven't read
any of these books myself yet, as the problem and the magnitude of the
problem have just now come to my attention. I'm going to order ALL of these
books and try to contact the authors.
The $800 Million Pill : The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs
by Merrill Goozner
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0520239458
The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About
It
by Marcia Angell
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375508465
On The Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your
Health
by Jerome Kassirer
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195176847
The Big Fix: How the Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers
(Publicaffairs Reports)
by Katharine Greider
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1586481851
Is there a consumer watchdog organization already trying to fight this
nonsense?? If there is, could someone please point me to their site? If not,
I may just create one myself. I am off to ClarkHoward.com now.
Feel free to copy and paste this and forward it to whoever you want. The
farther and wider it is spread, the better. To any physicians and
scientists with the guts to step forward and speak on this issue, your input
would be GREATLY appreciated.
Doug Reding
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