OBJECTIVES

: In dermatology, the galenic of vehicles makes it difficult to substitute medicines and hence aut idem is rarely used. In 1998, Solaraze^® was approved as originator with active substance diclofenac sodium and developed soon as market leader for treatment of actinic keratosis. The first generic product Solacutan^® entered the German market on 15 September 2016. Objective of this analysis is to investigate the effect of market entry of the generic product Solacutan^® on market share between the two products and corresponding price development of the two products in Germany.

METHODS

: German prescription data for both Solaraze^® and Solacutan^® between May 2015 and April 2018 were extracted from IMS Pharmascope. Prices for the same period were extracted from LAUER-TAXE® RESULTS

: The generic Solacutan^® entered the market with the same price level as the original product Solaraze^® in September 2016 (i. e. 131.61 € for Solacutan^® and 131.65 € for Solaraze^®). In October 2016 the price of Solacutan^® was lowered by 15 % (to 111.50 €) and lowered by additional 6 % (to 104.40 €) in November 2016. In December 2016, the price of Solaraze^® was lowered by 10 % (to 118.45 €). Two months after the price counteraction, Solaraze^® had a market share of approximately 69 % (correspondingly, Solacutan^® had a market share of 31 %) which has been approximately stable since.

CONCLUSIONS

: In dermatology, late and small price reductions of the market leader are sufficient to counteract a non-competitive market entry price with consecutive price reductions of the generic and to protect market share.