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Pfizer Expands e-Payment Drug Discounts in Emerging Markets

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/503e764c-1414-11df-8847-00144feab49a.html

›By Andrew Jack in London
February 8 2010 01:43

Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical group, is launching a system of electronic payment for medicines that links it directly with patients in many of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

The company this month launches its eCard programme in Russia with the aim of reaching 500,000 patients over the next year, and is gearing up for similar rapid expansion in Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela.

The move could help boost use of high-priced drugs by providing discounts to the majority of patients in emerging countries who have to pay for their own medicines, while raising concerns about direct access to personal medical information by a pharmaceutical company.

Jean-Michel Halfon, head of emerging markets for Pfizer, said: “The eCard is an innovative way to partner with society, patients and governments, to help manage chronic diseases at an affordable price.”

Each patient presents their eCard to the pharmacist to receive an automatic discount on the normal retail price, giving Pfizer information on the drug purchases to reimburse the difference to the pharmacist and track patient use directly.

By allowing it to offer discounts of up to 50 per cent to patients on the pharmacy price, the move may help boost access to expensive drugs by making them more affordable, while increasing Pfizer’s sales.

It will also allow the company to monitor when patients are not returning for regular repeat prescriptions for their medicines for long-term chronic conditions, allowing it to contact patients to remind them to take their drugs – and further boosting sales.

But the pricing discounts may also trigger concerns that they influence doctors’ prescriptions, switching away from the most medically appropriate drug to a decision based on affordability. It also breaks the traditional arms’ length relationship with pharmaceutical companies, designed to limit access to confidential personal data and prevent direct marketing without the intermediary role of a medical professional.

Pfizer first launched its eCard in the Philippines six years ago, where 2.2M patients are now in the system. It has since recruited another 110,000 in Indonesia and 18,000 in Malaysia. Apart from Russia, Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela, it plans to expand in Ukraine, the Caucasus and other Latin American markets in the coming months.

Patients receive reminders to take their medicines, educational information about their disease, and are eligible for discounts of 15-50 per cent.

Drugs the company offers through the programme are typically those for long-term chronic conditions including Lipitor, its cholesterol-reducing medicine. It said its experience with Norvasc, its blood pressure control drug, showed patient adherence to the medicine rose 162 per cent as a result of the programme.‹