Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Patents
  • Published:

PATENTS

Identifying potential prescription drug product hopping

Nature Biotechnology volume 39, pages 414–417 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Modified versions of existing drugs can substantially increase costs for patients and the health care system if the new version does not offer meaningful clinical improvement.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Fig. 1

References

  1. Feldman, R. J. Law Biosci. 5, 590–647 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Beall, R. F., Kesselheim, A. S. & Sarpatwari, A. J. Manag. Care Spec. Pharm 25, 218–224 (2019).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Gladstone, J. P. & Gawel, M. Drugs 63, 2285–2305 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Harris, G. Prilosec’s maker switches users to Nexium, thwarting generics. The Wall Street Journal (6 June 2002); http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1023326369679910840

  5. Gellad, W. F., Choi, P., Mizah, M., Good, C. B. & Kesselheim, A. S. Am. J. Manag. Care 20, e90–e97 (2014).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Vokinger, K. N., Kesselheim, A. S., Avorn, J. & Sarpatwari, A. JAMA Intern. Med. 177, 1665–1669 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Kapczynski, A., Park, C. & Sampat, B. PLoS One 7, e49470 (2012).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Kesselheim, A. S., Sinha, M. S. & Avorn, J. JAMA Intern. Med. 177, 1658–1664 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Goldacre, B. Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients (Faber and Faber, 2013).

  10. Capati, V. C. & Kesselheim, A. S. J. Manag. Care Spec. Pharm. 22, 339–344 (2016).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Jeffrey, S. Forest to discontinue memantine 5-, 10-mg tablets. Medscape (17 February 2014); https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/820705

  12. Pollack, A. Judge rules drug maker can’t shelve old pill. The New York Times (11 December 2014); https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/business/judge-says-actavis-must-continue-to-sell-namenda-a-drug-for-alzheimers-disease.html

  13. Carrier, M. A. & Shadowen, S. D. Notre Dame Law Rev. 92, 167–230 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Karshtedt, D. Iowa Law Rev. 104, 1129–1222 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Feldman, R. & Frondorf, E. Harvard J. Legis. 53, 499–561 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank N. Patel for comments on an earlier draft. This work was supported by Arnold Ventures and the Commonwealth Fund.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Vrushab Gowda, Reed F. Beall.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL), Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Vrushab Gowda, Reed F. Beall, Aaron S. Kesselheim & Ameet Sarpatwari

  2. Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Vrushab Gowda

  3. Cummings School of Medicine and O’Brien Institute of Public Health, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Reed F. Beall

Authors
  1. Vrushab Gowda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Reed F. Beall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Aaron S. Kesselheim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ameet Sarpatwari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ameet Sarpatwari.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

A.S.K. reports serving as an expert witness for a class of individual plaintiffs in a case against Gilead related to introduction of a new formulation of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gowda, V., Beall, R.F., Kesselheim, A.S. et al. Identifying potential prescription drug product hopping. Nat Biotechnol 39, 414–417 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00877-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-00877-9

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing