Generic Drugs Are Welcomed in Discount Program for Elderly

By Melody Peterson

NY Times, November 15, 2002

For brand-name drug manufacturers, competition from generic medicines means lower sales and profits.

But seven brand-name manufacturers said yesterday that they were welcoming generic drugs into a program they had created, called Together Rx, that offers discounts on prescriptions to low-income elderly people.

Peggy Heller, a spokeswoman for Together Rx, said that beginning Sunday, Eckerd drugstores would start offering discounts of about 30 percent on generic drugs to those people in the program.

Ms. Heller said the brand-name manufacturers that offered discounts on their products hoped that more drugstores would follow Eckerd's lead.

"This is a win-win for everybody," said Ms. Heller, who works for AstraZeneca, a brand-name manufacturer.

Joan Gallagher, a spokeswoman for Eckerd, said: "This provides a value to low-income seniors who don't have insurance. They have the greatest need."

Ms. Gallagher said Eckerd, which is owned by J. C. Penney, would offer discounts on more than 1,000 generic products in addition to the brand-name drugs.

Generic drug manufacturers are not helping with the discounts. The full discounts will be provided by Eckerd, Ms. Gallagher said.

So far, about 380,000 low-income elderly people have signed up for the Together Rx card, Ms. Heller said, with about 20,000 more signing up each week. So far, she said, members have saved more than $12 million on prescriptions.

To qualify for the card, elderly people must be enrolled in Medicare, not have public or private drug coverage, and have annual incomes of less than $28,000 for individuals or $38,000 for couples.

Besides AstraZeneca, the companies offering discounts through the program include Abbott Laboratories, Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis.

Eli Lilly and Pfizer offer low-income elderly people discounts through separate plans.

Faced with growing criticism about rising drug costs, GlaxoSmithKline offered the first discount plan about a year ago, followed quickly by other brand-name manufacturers.