Demographics, Practices, and Prescribing Characteristics: DISCUSSION
Prescription drugs represent a growing cost in the provision of health care. New drugs are now used in treatments for which older drugs were not developed. In addition, existing drug treatments are being replaced by newer, sometimes more costly, drugs.
Much has been written about the influences on physicians to prescribe newer drugs. These pressures originate from pharmaceutical companies, through their efforts to market and detail newer drugs; the medical literature; professional meetings; patients themselves; and the increasing use of DTC advertising for some medical indications.
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In contrast, the literature on the characteristics of new drug adopters is sparse. In most of these studies, interviews and reported behavioral data have been the sources of the information. The few studies that have used prescription data have not been able to link individual physicians with their specific prescribing behavior.
Similarly, little use has been made of multivariate models to examine new drug adoption. Our study examined individual physicians and their actual prescribing behavior from this type of multivariate view. It also examined new drug adoption by new drug novelty (first-in-class) and follow-on drugs (those in an established class).
The level of marketing support expended by a company for its newly launched drug is an important explanatory variable in understanding new drug adoption; in our analysis, it was used as a control variable.
CONCLUSION
Several physician-specific variables are critical in quantifying the likelihood of new drug adoption. A physician’s Total Prescribing Volume is essential in understanding the likelihood that the physician will adopt a new drug, whether or not that drug is first in its therapeutic class. Physicians who participated in a drug’s phase 3 clinical trials or who were specialists in the drug’s therapeutic area were more likely to adopt a new drug, whether or not it was therapeu-tically novel. buy antibiotics in canada
Younger physicians were more likely to adopt a novel drug, as were physicians who already prescribed a higher percentage of all their drugs from the company launching the novel new drug. Total Prescribing Volume within the drug class of a follow-on drug was also a significant predictor of new follow-on drug adoption. Office-based and board-certified physicians were also more likely to adopt a new follow-on drug.
