Me Too Drugs - increasing drug costs

Implications for Clinical Practice

The majority of new drugs do NOT represent a major advantage when compared to available alternatives. Since most new “me-too” drugs are much more expensive than equally effective older drugs, they represent a waste of health care resources. Physicians collectively have the power to prevent this waste and thus free up money for other sectors of the health care system.

Possible cost savings

If the increased use of “me-too” drugs in Canada could be stopped for just one year, we could save more than $1 billion off of total drug costs. After this one-year break, even if everyone went back to usual prescribing patterns, the savings generated and carried forward would pay for the salaries of 4000 new primary care physicians.