{"id":2876,"date":"2012-06-20T16:18:05","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T20:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/?p=2876"},"modified":"2012-06-20T16:18:05","modified_gmt":"2012-06-20T20:18:05","slug":"abacavir-becomes-the-latest-generic-antiretroviral-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/abacavir-becomes-the-latest-generic-antiretroviral-agent\/2012\/06\/20\/","title":{"rendered":"Abacavir Becomes the Latest Generic Antiretroviral Agent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hot on the heels of <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/index.php\/generic-nevirapine-now-available-but-the-big-one-is-next-year\/2012\/05\/25\/\" target=\"_blank\">generic nevirapine<\/a> comes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fda.gov\/ForConsumers\/ByAudience\/ForPatientAdvocates\/HIVandAIDSActivities\/ucm309085.htm\" target=\"_blank\">generic abacavir<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On June 18, 2012, FDA granted approval for a generic formulation of abacavir tablets, 300 mg, manufactured by Mylan Pharmaceuticals,\u00a0indicated in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection.\u00a0FDA has determined that the generic formulation is bioequivalent and, therefore, therapeutically equivalent to the reference listed drug, Ziagen Tablets, a product of VIIV Healthcare Company.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Note that this is for the separate 300 mg tablets, which are approved for twice-daily dosing, and not (yet) for the convenient coformulated once-daily abacavir\/3TC tablet.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, it&#8217;s notable that a highly effective, well tolerated regimen &#8212; abacavir, 3TC, and efavirenz &#8212; could now be two-thirds generic, with the last third (efavirenz) probably becoming generic sometime soon.<\/p>\n<p>Does that mean you&#8217;ll be switching your patients to generic abacavir once it appears in pharmacies? \u00a0Let&#8217;s do a poll.<\/p>\n<blockquote><div id=\"polls-2\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t<form id=\"polls_form_2\" class=\"wp-polls-form\" action=\"\/index.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_2_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"ac430049a4\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"poll_id\" value=\"2\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Will you switch your patients from coformulated abacavir\/3TC to the generic separate tablets?<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"polls-2-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-6\" name=\"poll_2\" value=\"6\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-6\">Nope -- the fewer pills the better<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-7\" name=\"poll_2\" value=\"7\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-7\">Only if a payor forces the issue<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-9\" name=\"poll_2\" value=\"9\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-9\">Sure, let's start saving some healthcare dollars<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><input type=\"button\" name=\"vote\" value=\"   Vote   \" class=\"Buttons\" onclick=\"poll_vote(2);\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#ViewPollResults\" onclick=\"poll_result(2); return false;\" title=\"View Results Of This Poll\">View Results<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hot on the heels of generic nevirapine comes generic abacavir: On June 18, 2012, FDA granted approval for a generic formulation of abacavir tablets, 300 mg, manufactured by Mylan Pharmaceuticals,\u00a0indicated in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection.\u00a0FDA has determined that the generic formulation is bioequivalent and, therefore, therapeutically equivalent to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,8,9],"tags":[15,20,77,383],"class_list":["post-2876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-hiv","category-patient-care","category-policy","tag-3tc","tag-abacavir","tag-antiretroviral-therapy","tag-generic-drugs"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}