Cacaito, Re: scrip data, your post makes a lot of sense and I will post it in my weekend edition
of " Vivus News update ".For those who are bound and determined to make sense of the INCOMPLETE
scrip data, I have posted a digest of the most meaningful posts. First yours:
1 ) Message 3502065
MissLil, Big discrepancy between total sales and the script:
15,000 (round number)x 4 x 12 = 720,000 per year.
Vivus was producing 750,000 to 950,000 units per month, and selling the full production.
750,000 x $16 (Muse sale price for Vivus in the US) = $120,000,000 goes well with total year sales.
The script data is 8% to 10% of the Vivus production and sales.
Unless the numbers they are producing should be multiply by 10, some documents short the figures,
and present a x10 somewhere in smaller "script".
Otherwise, I will wait for Dr Bond explanation Monday.
2)DR.BOND:
Message 3493972
RT....One possible explanation for why refills do not exceed new scripts is that most refills are at the 1,000 mg dosage (which is in great demand and short supply) while most new scripts are at the 250 and 500 mg level, where their is more availability of product.
3) Miss Lil ( very good ).
Message 3493986
Some of the "refills" may actually represent repeat customers. For instance, the patient may come back and need a new RX (perhaps to send to a mail-in pharmacy) or to change pharmacies. In addition, they may need a new prescription because their original prescription said "three refills." This replacement prescription, I assume, would be counted as a new prescription.
I believe also (based on no data or clinical experience) that men who have been impotent may not be having sex 6 times a month. They and their partners will probably have adapted to a less frequent schedule. Over time, this would probably increase, but one shouldn't expect that a woman who has become used to nice, uninterrupted sleep is likely to give that up easily. (The writer is not necessarily of this persuasion, but my male friends report this as not uncommon in their marriages.) Also, perhaps some of the men with more mild difficulties will discover that they don't need Muse any more. There may even be a rational scientific explanation(s) for this including: better blood supply due to local nitric OXIDE stimulation, hormonal stimulation with feedback that may improve responsiveness, improved responsiveness of the partner based on some positive sexual experiences (that would therefore be more arousing to the patient with ED), as well as psychological reasons in the male patient himself. And some people will just decide that it's not worth it for them to deal with. So I wouldn't expect 50% of the patients to become long term users. These are all reasonable clinical impressions but there isn't any significant data to back up most of these assertions so no one should take anything in this paragraph as a known medical fact.
As long as both the new prescriptions and the refills are increasing, I am not concerned about the relative new vs. refill rate because there are too many unknowns about the data, as discussed above. So all of this looks positive.
4) DR. BOND again
Message 3493795
I will say that IMS data only reflects scripts filled at the retail level and does not reflect direct distribution.
Last year, IMS data only tracked approx. 70% of product sold, balance sold at clinics and direct mail dispense.
My opinion is as follows:
-IMS data are incomplete: only 70% of sales are reflected there.
-Initial users used 250; then every 4 - 8 weeks depending on frequency of sex, they moved to 500, and then to 1000.
Because these scrips are a DIFFERENT, HIGHER dose, THEY WOULD BE CONSIDERED A N E W Scrip!! And NOT a refill. So if you think that in fact they are refills ( patients coming back, then the refill number is much higher than shown.
-most patients are now moving to 1000 mcg. So that in essence the NATIONAL titration of VIVUS dose as I call it , GG ) is STILL in PROGRESS!!! .So we can't really talk about refills yet. These are MOSTLY ALL NEW scrips !!!
Hopefully more on this on Monday.
Because there is such an interest in refills, I will make this a permanent site in the News update.
TA |
