Clinician impact and financial cost to the NHS of litigation over pregabalin

Following litigation over pregabalin’s second-use medical patent for neuropathic pain NHS England were required by the court to instruct GPs to prescribe the branded form (Lyrica) for Pain, notes a new study led by Oxford University researchers and published by BioRxiv.

The drug’s maker Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) patent was found invalid in 2015; a ruling subject to ongoing appeals. If the Supreme Court appeal in February 2018 is unsuccessful, the National Health Service (NHS) can reclaim excess prescribing costs, they note.

The study sets out to describe the variation in prescribing of pregabalin as branded Lyrica, geographically and over time; to determine how clinicians responded to the NHS England instruction to GPs; and to model excess costs to the NHS attributable to the legal judgments. Lyrica is one of Pfizer’s top-selling drugs, generating revenues of $1.13 billion globally in 2017.