LIFESTYLE DRUG

&
Me-Too Drugs
By Tutor A6

@tutorarbow
Definition
 A pharmaceutical product characterized as improving the
quality of life rather than alleviating or curing disease (1);
 medicines that are used to treat ‘lifestyle illnesses’, such as
smoking, alcoholism or overeating (2).

 Drugs that could modify or change non-medical or non-health-

related goal or conditions at the margins of health and
wellbeing, can be used fashionably over the counter to alter not
only the appearance but also the physical and mental
capabilities (2)

OVERVIEW OF LIFESTYLE DRUG

• Drugs approved for specific indications
(e.g., baldness or social anxiety disorder).

 Drugs, approved for specific indications, that are used

for other purposes
(eg: SSRIs)

 Drugs that have been used traditionally

(eg: includes illegal drugs of abuse, alcohol and caffeine)

 Natural products
(eg: ascorbic acids, fish oils, herbal extracts)

TYPES OF LIFESTYLE DRUGS

 Even though some of these drugs could be
helpful to improve the health, perhaps preventive
measure (losing weight, quitting smoking), they
aren’t considered curative or life-saving in the
same sense as other prescription drugs are.

 Alcohol has been used enormously as one of the oldest

lifestyle drugs and currently sildenafil citrate (Viagra),
the drugs of choice for erectile dysfunction, exemplifies
a turning point in the era of modern lifestyle drugs.

 Two factors seem to be important when the term

lifestyle drug is used:
~ The person taking the drug perceives that it will increase
her or his happiness
~ The person using the term, or a significant portion of
society.
Why the world spend more money on lifestyle
drugs?
 Gives good
revenue to the Over-the-
pharmaceutical
company
counter drugs

Plenty supply by the

pharmaceutical
Easy to
company obtain

Interest in Lifestyle Drugs ↑↑

Promising Offer social

effect
advertisement

Boost self-esteem or
self-image, help with
With modern lifestyle weight loss, a fix to
needs like youth, embarassing sexual
beauty, intellegence, complications
personality, etc.
 The booming of “lifestyle drugs” has tempted the companies to
invest huge amounts in research on such drugs.
 The vested interests of pharmaceutical companies accompanied
with their aggressive marketing, along with the rising affordability
of the community as a whole due to a booming economy.
 A person in the modern world seeks a very simplistic approach.
Everybody tries to solve the problem in a very reductionist,
mechanical and biomedical way. They wish to search the answer
for every simple health problem in a pill. This bent of the human
psyche has further been exploited by some pharmaceutical
industry, which obviously has an interest in selling all sorts of pills.

Why do “Lifestyle Drugs” receive more

attention from pharmaceutical company than
other drugs?
Examples on how the money has been spent
on ‘lifestyle’ drugs compared to others
Definition

drugs that are approved after a pioneer drug and which

are the “same” (comparable or similar) and are not
clinically superior

drugs that have more or less identical clinical outcomes to

pre-existing drugs

Me-Too Drugs (Follow-On Drugs)

1. Increased therapeutic choice
◦ Especially for patients for whom the pioneer drug is ineffective or
entails undesirable side effect(s)

2. Possible substantial price reductions

◦ Due to practice price competitions

Benefits
1. Decrease the incentive for innovation
◦ Introduction of me-too drugs to the market  market splitting
instead of market expansion  decrease the profitability of
pioneering drugs

2. Some me-too drugs may have an unacceptable

benefit/risk ratio, if their incremental benefits are
relatively small
◦ Older drugs will have several years of additional experience to
show side effects compared to the me-too drugs which only have
clinical trial to recommend

3. May be using up more resources than they are worth

Costs
Me-too drugs should be approved on one condition :
The drug(s) show clinical superiority to pre-exisiting
therapies (drugs that have been marketed for some time,
let’s say 18 months)

Conclusion
Thankyou.