Key Findings

We analyzed the prevalence of prior authorization (PA) and quantity limit (QL) restrictions for the depression products by health plan type in order to determine if there were any significant changes during related to the introduction of two generic products in the class.

Interestingly, the commercial and medicare markets experienced different trends for both PA and QL. In the commercial market segment, all the studied drugs experienced increases in the percentage of covered lives with PA restrictions, from July 2006 to November 2007. Lexapro, Paxil CR, and Zoloft all had the largest increases. The commercial market may be responding to the availability of generic products by implementing restrictions such as PA and QL. While there were increases on the commercial side, there were decreases for all products (except Lexapro) for Medicare plans. Medicare lives had significantly lower rates of PA restrictions, as compared to commercial plans.

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Lack of Impact from Two Key Generics in the Anti-depressant Formulary Market (PDF 296KB)

Archives

December 2007: Lack of Impact from Two Key Generics in the Anti-depressant Formulary Market

October 2007: Formulary Position Differences between Commercial and Medicare Plans

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