In reply: Our recent study1 estimates pharmaceutical expenditure from 2009 to 2019 for various levels of use of off-patent statins, ranging from 25% (close to the current proportion) to 100%. We also show that England has much higher use of generic statins and consequently much lower pharmaceutical expenditure. However, our study does not advocate a particular level of generic use and so it is unclear why Bulfone has chosen to focus on only one of the cases (100% use of generics) presented in our study.
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- School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW.
Correspondence: edmundf@health.usyd.edu.au
- 1. Clarke PM, Fitzgerald EM. Expiry of patent protection on statins: effects on pharmaceutical expenditure in Australia. Med J Aust 2010; 192: 633-636. <eMJA full text> <MJA full text>
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