Self-medication: a market expansion will continue

The number of drugs from prescription status to self-medication will continue to grow , according to the view defended by a team of American researchers in the " British Medical Journal " .
Usually fall into the category of specialty OTC ( " over-the -counter " ) medication used for the treatment of non- chronic diseases , including self-diagnosis is relatively easy and that the abuse (as may occur due to wide availability ) has a low risk , explained Joshua Cohen and his colleagues at the Centre for the Study of drug Development , Faculty of medicine, Tufts University , Boston .

However, the recent passage of an OTC statin in the UK , an anti -ulcer (an inhibitor of the proton pump) in Sweden and an antihistamine in the United States do not apply to specialty meeting this definition , say U.S. researchers .

The analysis of these three cases they identified three main reasons based transfers to self-medication : the willingness of pharmaceutical companies to expand their markets , attempts by health authorities to reduce drug costs for generate savings for and finally the trend increasingly labeled supported by each of their own health health insurance systems .

To analyze the impact of remittances in economic terms , the authors of this article reviewed the forms twelve U.S. insurance companies .

The most common insurers attitude after such transfer seems to be to remove from the list of drugs they repay those who have gone OTC , while increasing the cost to the insured for the specialties of the same class remaining available only on prescription in order to encourage patients to turn to specialty available OTC .

Thus, the United States , the passage of an OTC medication reduces the cost of prescription drugs for insurers , while the increase for most policyholders. In contrast, patients uninsured benefit financially from this measure, including saving them the cost of the consultation .

OTC transfers imposed by the authorities, while the drug is still protected by a patent (as an IPP in Sweden) " threaten the profits of the pharmaceutical industry and are unlikely to recur in the near future," the authors say .

However , laboratories are more likely to request such a transfer closer to the date of expiry of a patent, to anticipate generic competition in developing the self-medication market themselves. And such requests should be seen as a good thing by the health authorities decided to limit drug costs for health insurance systems , say the U.S. researchers .

With this trend , patients will be able to treat more themselves , especially in the field of prevention of chronic severe diseases, they conclude.