Verispan Reports: Divergent Patterns Emerge Within Individual State Medicaid Plans in Response...

YARDLEY, Pa. -- In the month following the withdrawal of Merck's COX-2 inhibitor Vioxx from the market, the majority of Medicaid patients who had been taking the arthritis medication were switched to other COX-2 inhibitors, according to Verispan's Vector One(TM): State Medicaid Service. When viewed

Under California's Medi-Cal program, nearly 51% of October's 4,583 patient switches from Vioxx went to Pfizer's Celebrex, and 19% were to Pfizer's Bextra. In New York State's massive Medicaid program, 39% of the projected 3,531 Vioxx switches went to Celebrex. Bextra garnered 27% of New York Medicaid's switches from Vioxx.

These numbers differ slightly from national figures. Of the projected 22,465 U.S. Medicaid enrollees who were switched from Vioxx during October, 42% were prescribed Celebrex; another 24% were switched to Bextra. The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) Mobic, which is manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim and co-marketed by Abbott Laboratories, accounted for 10% of Medicaid Vioxx switches. Most of the remaining 22% went to generic NSAIDs.

The projected number of Medicaid enrollees taking Celebrex increased 9%, to 77,497, between September and October. Medicaid patient usage for Bextra increased nearly 21% during the same time period, as a projected 31,700 Medicaid patients took the drug in October.

The Vector One: State Medicaid Service monitors key patient and prescription metrics for the Medicaid market. The service measures the impact of state efforts to regulate Medicaid prescription drug costs and access.

Unlike other Medicaid prescription tracking services, the Vector One: State Medicaid Service captures key patient metrics, such as new, continuing and switch/add patients. This allows for a more comprehensive analysis of Medicaid activity. The service also enables users to monitor switching patterns for their drugs as well as for competing products.

In addition to quantifying the effect of product withdrawals, the Vector One: State Medicaid Service can quickly gauge the impact of other Medicaid market drivers, such as preferred drug list changes and prior authorization requirements.

For more information about the Vector One: State Medicaid Service, please contact Jason Fox at 800-982-5613 or e-mail jason.fox@verispan.com.

Verispan: The True Measure of Healthcare

Verispan, a healthcare informatics joint venture of Quintiles Transnational Corp. and McKesson Corp., provides a broad array of information products and services to the healthcare industry, including sales targeting and compensation products; market research audits; healthcare profiles; comprehensive managed care offerings; primary market research; opinion leader mapping; data integration, warehousing and mining; data analysis and consulting; direct mail; list services; disease management studies; clinical trial investigator targeting and protocol recruitment evaluation; healthcare outcomes; and cost/benefit analyses, among many others. Verispan is also the nation's leading provider of patient-centric longitudinal data, with dozens of products used by clients spanning the industry.

Headquartered in Yardley, Pa., Verispan comprises over 500 dedicated healthcare information professionals. The company's Web site is www.verispan.com.