Good News for Pet Owners - New Law Paves Way for Lower Cost Generic Animal Drugs
Date: August 18, 2008
The Animal Generic Drug User Fee Act (AGDUFA) enables the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) to allocate additional resources to the review and approval of generic animal drug applications--decreasing the time it takes to get lower cost alternatives into the hands of veterinarians and pet owners.
"Many pet owners consider their pets part of the family, and while their children may be covered by insurance, pet owners generally pay out of pocket for veterinary costs," said Jean Hoffman, CEO of Putney. "While generic human drugs have been available for more than 20 years, and lower cost generic equivalents are available for human medicine within days of patent expiry, veterinarians and pet owners do not have many generic options. For example a pet owner could pay nearly $40 for a 30-day supply of the branded arthritis drug Rimadyl® to treat their dog; however, if given the choice of the generic carprofen caplets, the pet owner would instead pay less than $22--a savings of nearly 50%. AGDUFA will help generic drug companies, like Putney, provide pet owners and veterinarians lower cost options to brand veterinary drugs."
The Putney team is focused exclusively on providing high quality, bioequivalent veterinary drugs to give veterinarians and pet owners the option of a low cost generic to fill their pets' prescriptions.
About Putney, Inc. Putney, based in Portland, Maine, is a pharmaceutical company focused on the development of generic drugs for pets. The company seeks to offer high quality prescribing options to veterinarians so treatment decisions can be made based on pet patient needs and so pet owners can afford to treat their pets.