Medicines | The price of a common cholesterol medicine multiplied in a few months

Elevated there is a large variation in the pricing of the drug containing rosuvastatin, which is commonly used in the treatment of cholesterol.

The price of Sandoz’s cholesterol medicine has multiplied in a few months. When the price of a 100-pack of five milligram medicine was the pharmaceutical price board according to May 1, about five euros, in September it cost Finnish Association of Pharmacists including more than 30 euros. When reimbursed by Kela, the medicine costs about 20 euros.

For example, the price of a similar medicine package from the pharmaceutical company Ratiopharm is currently less than 10 euros.

If the drug was not Kela-reimbursable, the pharmaceutical company would be free to define its price. The Medicines Price Board defines the maximum wholesale price for reimbursed medicines, within which pharmaceutical companies can set the market price of the medicine.

One reason for the price of Sandoz’s drug may be its availability issues. According to information from the pharmaceutical safety and development center Fimea, in addition to Sandoz and Ratiopharm, the drug imported by the pharmaceutical company Orion, among others, has problems with availability, especially in five but also ten milligram tablets.

Pharmaceutical companies themselves report information about availability problems to Fimea.

“Especially in this five-milligram strength, there seem to be a lot of availability problems now. But then, as far as other strengths are concerned, the situation is quite normal,” the head of Fimea’s monitoring and availability unit tells STT Timo Mauriala.

Other available strengths of rosuvastatin are 10, 20 and 40 milligrams. According to Mauriala, the 10 milligram preparation is the most used strength in Finland.

Cholesterol drugs usage has increased. According to Kela, last year in Finland more than one million people used cholesterol medicines. Even in 2016, the number was less than 700,000.

So far, Sandoz has not commented on the matter to STT.

Mauriala says that the availability problem applies to all parallel preparations of rosuvastatin.

“Regarding this five-milligram preparation, it seems that every manufacturer is currently experiencing disruptions in availability.”

Sandoz, Ratiopharm and Orion have informed Fimea that the five milligram tablets have availability problems in both the 30 and 100 tablet packages.

The availability disruption of Sandoz’s 10 milligram tablets of 30 packs is estimated to last from mid-August to the end of the year, while the corresponding drug from Ratiopharm is expected to last from the beginning of September to the end of November.

The availability of Ratiopharm’s 100-count pack has been reported to be uncertain from early August to early December.

The availability problems of rosuvastatin have been going on for a long time, the CEO of drug manufacturer Teva Finland tells STT Tommie Jern. Teva owns Ratiopharm, one of the pharmaceutical companies selling rosuvastatin.

According to Jern, the market leader Orion had an interruption in availability, which is why demand for the medicine increased at Teva, among others.

“Our demand has grown a lot because the market leader was out of the market and still is in part.”

Production capacity has not always been able to respond to increased demand.

“Maybe I’m a bit of a laggard, but I think we’ve been able to increase capacity pretty well now,” Jern estimates.

From Fimea STT is told that there are a total of 34 medicines whose active ingredient is rosuvastatin in different strengths of the trade in Finland. The holders of sales licenses have reported that 18 of these currently have availability problems. The preparation refers to the strength of a medicine with a certain name, for example Rosuvastatin’s five milligram tablet.

According to Mauriala, in general, it is the case that the vast majority of the substances needed in the manufacture of the medicine, i.e. the production of active substances and also excipients, is strongly concentrated in Asia, India and China.

“When some kind of disruption occurs on the journey, it is reflected very quickly on the end user.”

According to Mauriala, if you can’t find your own strength of medication at the pharmacy, you should contact the treating doctor and discuss what would be the most reasonable way to continue the medication.

According to him, there are many options available in medicines intended for the treatment of high cholesterol. Similar drugs are available that do not use statins.

Mauriala says that statins, to which rosuvastatin belongs, are, so to speak, more traditional drugs that have been on the market longer in the treatment of cholesterol. This partly explains why rosuvastatin has become, as it were, a basic drug in the treatment of high cholesterol.