Crestor Discounting Keeps Allergan's Generic Off UnitedHealth Formulary
This article was originally published in The Pink Sheet Daily
Executive Summary
UnitedHealth will drop AstraZeneca's brand from coverage after competition drives down price of generic rosuvastatin.
UnitedHealth Group Co.’s commercial plans will exclude Allergan PLC’s generic rosuvastatin from coverage and provide preferred coverage to AstraZeneca PLC’s Crestor until another generic reaches the market, likely in early August.
Once there is additional generic competition, UnitedHealth will cover rosuvastatin and exclude Crestor from its formularies. The insurer’s coverage policy for Crestor and the generic applies to its fully insured and self-funded commercial plans.
FDA approved the ANDA for rosuvastatin calcium on April 29, marking the first generic approval of the last statin to lose patent protection (Also see "Generic Crestor Marks The End Of An Era, Should Quickly Outperform PCSK9s" - Pink Sheet, 29 Apr, 2016.). The introduction of generic rosuvastatin is expected to be one of the most important generic launches of the year.
Under the terms of an agreement reached with AstraZeneca in 2013, Allergan launched the generic May 2, 67 days prior to the expiration of pediatric exclusivity for Crestor on July 8, 2016, after which other generics are expected to be introduced. Several other generic companies have received tentative approvals for copies of Crestor.
In a presentation announcing its July 2016 formulary updates, UnitedHealth explains it decided to exclude Allergan’s generic initially because it was expected to be priced only slightly below Crestor and thus would be “much higher” than the brand once rebates from AstraZeneca are factored in.
The UnitedHealth “brand over generic” strategy for Crestor is not new. The insurer reached a similar agreement with Merck & Co. Inc. for Zocor (simvastatin), when a generic version of that drug reached the market in 2006 (Also see "Merck Pushes Discount Zocor; Health Plans Are Wary, But Pfizer Is Concerned" - Pink Sheet, 26 Jun, 2006.).
Competition from other generics is expected to drive the cost of Allergan’s product down substantially. United expects the price of the generic to drop about 90 days after Allergan’s product launched, giving Crestor an extra few months of favorable coverage by the nation’s largest insurer.