The Medicines Company Case
Q1
Value: Angiomax is a blood-thinning drug, or anticoagulant, used in emergency coronary heart care. Angiomax is positioned as an alternative to heparin, the most commonly used anticoagulant in emergency coronary heart care, so to assess Angiomax value to a hospital is required to compare these two drugs.
First of all is necessary to analyze the differences in effectiveness of the products in treatments. The use of heparin has associated some general disadvantages like: • Unpredictable effects: it is difficult to use properly since its effectiveness depends on achieving a certain level of anticoagulation of the blood, too much might lead to uncontrolled bleeding and too little might not prevent a blood clot • • High risk of uncontrolled bleeding: it is necessary a tight monitoring of patients in order to identify and control potential major bleedings after the use of heparin Risk of adverse reactions: the use of heparin could cause a thrombocytopenia (HIT) in some patients • Needs several hours to the observe the effects: cardiologists said that it might be necessary wait three or four hours to see if a dose of heparin has the desired effect In contrast, the effects of Angiomax were very accurate and predictable, since it works faster than Heparin so it is easier to know if the desired effect was obtained. Some studies conducted discover that the use of Angiomax in has associated at the same time a lower risk of major bleedings and risk of adverse reactions in patients. Angiomax is more effective than Heparin, especially in “high-risk” and “very high-risk” patients, that accounts for 50% of all the angioplasty patients (40% “high-risk” & 10% “very high-risk”). However, for the other 50%, the low-risk patients, Angiomax was also better, but the differences when compared wit heparin are not so significant as in the other half of patients. The higher quality and capabilities of Angiomax described create the Functional Value that the hospital could benefit through
Value: Angiomax is a blood-thinning drug, or anticoagulant, used in emergency coronary heart care. Angiomax is positioned as an alternative to heparin, the most commonly used anticoagulant in emergency coronary heart care, so to assess Angiomax value to a hospital is required to compare these two drugs.
First of all is necessary to analyze the differences in effectiveness of the products in treatments. The use of heparin has associated some general disadvantages like: • Unpredictable effects: it is difficult to use properly since its effectiveness depends on achieving a certain level of anticoagulation of the blood, too much might lead to uncontrolled bleeding and too little might not prevent a blood clot • • High risk of uncontrolled bleeding: it is necessary a tight monitoring of patients in order to identify and control potential major bleedings after the use of heparin Risk of adverse reactions: the use of heparin could cause a thrombocytopenia (HIT) in some patients • Needs several hours to the observe the effects: cardiologists said that it might be necessary wait three or four hours to see if a dose of heparin has the desired effect In contrast, the effects of Angiomax were very accurate and predictable, since it works faster than Heparin so it is easier to know if the desired effect was obtained. Some studies conducted discover that the use of Angiomax in has associated at the same time a lower risk of major bleedings and risk of adverse reactions in patients. Angiomax is more effective than Heparin, especially in “high-risk” and “very high-risk” patients, that accounts for 50% of all the angioplasty patients (40% “high-risk” & 10% “very high-risk”). However, for the other 50%, the low-risk patients, Angiomax was also better, but the differences when compared wit heparin are not so significant as in the other half of patients. The higher quality and capabilities of Angiomax described create the Functional Value that the hospital could benefit through