Pramipexole ER uptake to be inhibited by availability of generic version

HealthLeaders-InterStudy and Fingertip Formulary find that the uptake of Boehringer Ingelheim's pramipexole ER, the once-daily formulation of its market leading dopamine agonist Mirapex that was approved earlier this month, will be inhibited by competition from generic pramipexole which became available earlier this year. According to the new Formulary Forum report entitled Formulary Advantages in Parkinson's Disease: Which Clinical Endpoints Will Drive Uptake of Emerging Agents?, more than half of surveyed pharmacy directors expect to require patients to fail a generic medication before reimbursing pramipexole ER.

The report also finds the majority of surveyed pharmacy directors will require new treatments to demonstrate improvement in motor symptoms, disease modification or reduction of motor response complications for reimbursement equal to current brands. Surveyed pharmacy directors are least influenced by more convenient formulations.

"Among emerging agents covered in this survey, pramipexole ER was the least likely to be reimbursed by surveyed pharmacy directors—only half expect to reimburse the agent once it launches—supporting our finding that managed care organization pharmacy directors are looking for more than convenience when deciding how to cover emerging Parkinson's disease drugs versus current brands," said Analyst Cindy Fung, Ph.D., author of the report. "The emerging agents surveyed pharmacy directors say they are most likely to cover on commercial and Medicare formularies are all novel therapies, including Solvay's pardoprunox and Acadia/Biovail's pimavanserin."

The new Formulary Forum report is based on a survey of 51 U.S. pharmacy directors who control formularies at national, regional and state-level managed care organizations, as well as historical formulary data from Fingertip Formulary.

SOURCE HealthLeaders-InterStudy; Fingertip Formulary