Systems and Methods for Shifting Prescription Market Share by Presenting Pricing Differentials for Therapeutic Alternatives
First Claim
1. A method for facilitating a shift in drug market share, comprising:
- receiving prescription drug information associated with a consumer;
based at least in part on the prescription drug information, determining at least one alternative drug and cost savings information associated with purchasing the alternative drug in lieu of a prescription drug associated with the prescription drug information;
providing, for review by an entity, the identity of the alternative drug and cost savings information; and
receiving decision information associated with the consumer, wherein the decision information includes a decision to switch from the prescription drug to the alternative drug.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
While a pharmacist may know of other medications approved by the FDA for the same medical condition, the pharmacist typically does not know what the therapeutically equivalent dose of those products is when compared to the originally prescribed item In addition to this lack of equivalent dosage information, the pharmacist also is unable to determine if any of those other FDA approved items will save the consumer any money. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention can provide pharmacists and/or consumers with equivalent dosage information as well as pricing information for the equivalent dosage. Accordingly, based at least in part on this information, consumers may have an incentive to and may decide to purchase to another prescription drug, thereby shifting market share to a preferred prescription drug or pharmaceutical manufacturer or provider.
146 Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A method for facilitating a shift in drug market share, comprising:
-
receiving prescription drug information associated with a consumer;
based at least in part on the prescription drug information, determining at least one alternative drug and cost savings information associated with purchasing the alternative drug in lieu of a prescription drug associated with the prescription drug information;
providing, for review by an entity, the identity of the alternative drug and cost savings information; and
receiving decision information associated with the consumer, wherein the decision information includes a decision to switch from the prescription drug to the alternative drug. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a shift in drug market share, comprising:
-
receiving, at a switch provider, a message from a pharmacy, wherein the message includes information identifying a requested drug;
identifying one or more alternative drugs for the requested drug, wherein the alternative drugs have substantially similar therapeutic effects as the requested drug;
determining that at least one of the identified alternative drugs are priced at lower price than the requested drug; and
transmitting, to the pharmacy, an indication of availability of at least one alternative drug and pricing information associated with the at least one alternative drug. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A computer-implemented method for obtaining an alternative to a prescription drug from a pharmacy, comprising:
-
requesting a prescription drug from a therapeutic alternative program;
receiving, from the therapeutic alternative program, information identifying one or more alternative drugs, wherein each of the alternative drugs has substantially similar therapeutic effects as the prescription drug;
receiving, from the therapeutic alternative program, information associated with a price savings, wherein one or more of the alternative drugs is priced lower than the requested prescription drug; and
transmitting a switch request to the therapeutic alternative program, wherein the switch request comprises a request for at least one alternative drug in lieu of the initially requested prescription drug.
-
-
24. A system for facilitating a shift in drug market share, comprising:
a therapeutic alternative program module operable to;
receive prescription drug information associated with a consumer;
based at least in part on the prescription drug information, determine at least one alternative drug and cost savings information associated with purchasing the alternative drug in lieu of a prescription drug associated with the prescription drug information;
provide, for review by an entity, the identity of the alternative drug and cost savings information; and
receive decision information associated with the consumer, wherein the decision information includes a decision to switch from the prescription drug to the alternative drug.
-
25. A system for facilitating a shift in drug market share, comprising:
a therapeutic alternative program module operable to;
receive, at a switch provider, a message from a pharmacy, wherein the message includes information identifying a requested drug;
identify one or more alternative drugs for the requested drug, wherein the alternative drugs have substantially similar therapeutic effects as the requested drug;
determine that at least one of the identified alternative drugs are priced at lower price than the requested drug; and
transmit, to the pharmacy, an indication of availability of at least one alternative drug and pricing information associated with the at least one alternative drug.
-
26. A system for obtaining an alternative to a prescription drug from a pharmacy, comprising:
a computer program module operable to;
request a prescription drug from a therapeutic alternative program;
receive, from the therapeutic alterative program, information identifying one or more alternative drugs, wherein each of the alternative drugs has substantially similar therapeutic effects as the prescription drug;
receive, from the therapeutic alternative program, information associated with a price savings, wherein one or more of the alternative drugs is priced lower than the requested prescription drug; and
transmit a switch request to the therapeutic alternative program, wherein the switch request comprises a request for at least one alternative drug in lieu of the initially requested prescription drug.
-
27. A method for facilitating a shift in drug market share, comprising:
-
offering one or more drugs to a pharmacy at an initial price, wherein the drugs can be used to fill prescriptions associated with consumers;
establishing a rebate program with the pharmacy to provide a price reduction for a prescribed drug based on a predefined shift in market share for the prescribed drug;
receiving, from a therapeutic alternative program, information associated with a shift in market share for one of the drugs;
based at least in part on the shift in market share, determining whether the drug is eligible for a price reduction; and
if the drug is eligible for a price a reduction, offering the drug to the pharmacy at a reduced price, wherein the drug can be used to fill a prescription requested by a consumer
-
-
28. A method for enhancing revenues of a pharmacy, comprising:
-
establishing a customer program at a pharmacy for cash customers;
providing one or more program rules for the customer program, wherein at least one program rule specifies at least an amount of a discount for one or more drugs;
receiving at least one drug order from a cash customer at the pharmacy;
providing the drug order to a switch provider;
identifying, via the switch provider, one or more alternative drugs for the drug associated with the drug order, wherein the alternative drugs have substantially similar therapeutic effects as the drug associated with the drug order;
determining that one or more of the identified alternative drugs are priced at a lower price than the drug associated with the drug order, wherein the prices for the alternative drugs are based at least in part on one or more of the program rules; and
transmitting, to the pharmacy, an indication of availability of one or more alternative drugs and pricing information associated with the one or more alternative drugs.
-
Specification