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Consumer Reports Recommends Best Buy in ACE
Inhibitors
Five best buys can save senior citizens up to $1,200
a year
April 29, 2005 - Five of the 10 drugs in a class
called ACE Inhibitors -used to treat mostly older people with high blood
pressure, heart disease and diabetes - have been chosen as Consumer
Reports Best Buy Drugs, with potential annual savings of $1,200 a year
over higher-priced medications.
The drugs, known as ACEIs, were the third most
prescribed class of drugs in the United States in 2004. They are
effective, life-saving medicines with over 20 years of widespread safe
use, and help lower the risk of both fatal and non-fatal heart attacks
and strokes, and kidney failure. However, millions of Americans may not
be taking these medications due to the high cost of some of them.
"The ACEIs are essential medicines," said Gail
Shearer, project director of Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs.
"Unfortunately, not everyone who could benefit from an ACEI is taking
one. By identifying the most cost-effective ACEIs, we aim to help people
work with their doctors to choose the best medicine at an affordable
price."
Since December, the Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs
project has released free consumer-friendly reports on six widely-used
categories of prescription drugs. The grant-funded program is designed
to help patients, with their doctors, find effective and affordable
medicines. The reports are available at
http://www.CRBestBuyDrugs.org.
All of the Best Buy ACEIs are relatively low-cost
or moderately-priced medicines ($18 to $65 a month) with superior track
records of effectiveness and safety. The report shows consumers how they
could save hundreds of dollars a year if they are currently taking a
brand-name ACEI, and $1,200 or more a year if they have been prescribed
or are taking one of the highest- priced ACEIs.
For example, the Best Buy ACEI generics cost half
or less what most brand-name ACEIs cost. A person prescribed brand-name
Vasotec (enalapril) 20mg once a day would save almost $400 a year if he
or she switched to generic enalapril. A person prescribed brand-name
Capoten (captopril) 12.5mg three times a day would save $1,284 a year if
he or she could be switched to generic lisinopril 30mg once a day.
ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) Inhibitors are prescribed for tens
of millions of Americans to treat high blood pressure and heart failure,
to prevent repeat heart attacks and reverse thickening of the heart due
to high blood pressure, and to prevent the decline of kidney function in
people with high blood pressure and/or diabetes. In particular, ACEIs
have become a cornerstone of treatment for heart failure, a condition in
which the heart muscle weakens, limiting its ability to pump blood.
High blood pressure and heart failure are
under-treated conditions in the United States. Only about 30 percent of
people who have high blood pressure, for example, get the medicines,
care and blood pressure control they need. In part, that's because some
of the needed medicines are expensive.
The five Best Buy ACEIs were chosen based primarily
on evidence for their effectiveness but also on dosing convenience and
cost in treating the following conditions. They are:
-- For high blood pressure: benazepril,
enalapril, and lisinopril
-- For heart failure: enalapril, captopril
-- After a heart attack: lisinopril
-- For diabetics: ramipril (Altace)
-- For people with kidney disease: benazepril,
ramipril (Altace)
Four of these medicines are generics and one -
ramipril (Altace) - is a moderately-priced brand-name drug that has been
proven particularly effective in treating people who have diabetes and
other heart disease risk factors.
The report notes that ACEIs should not be initial
"first-step" treatment for most people with high blood pressure who do
not have heart disease, diabetes, or kidney disease. ACEIs are best used
in combination with other blood pressure medicines.
The ACEIs join five other categories examined to
date: cholesterol-lowering statins; heartburn and acid reflux drugs;
anti-inflammatory pain relievers; antidepressants; and beta- blockers to
treat high blood pressure and heart disease.
Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs is both an
educational and outreach effort. Initiatives have been launched in
Atlanta and Sacramento in the last two months to put Best Buy Drug print
reports into consumers' hands and to test methods for reaching consumers
who need information on prescription drug effectiveness and pricing.
The project combines evidence-based research on the
comparative effectiveness and safety of prescription drugs with
comprehensive nationwide data on drug prices. The information on drug
effectiveness is derived from the Drug Effectiveness Review Project (DERP),
a 12-state initiative. Price information is based on average retail
prices paid in cash by consumers at the pharmacy. Every drug report is
peer-reviewed by medical experts in the particular drug category.
See the cost comparison table on the following
pages. To view or download the full 20-page ACEI report, go to
http://www.CRBestBuyDrugs.org.
(c)Consumers Union 2005. The material above is
intended for legitimate news entities only; it may not be used for
commercial or promotional purposes. Consumers Union, the publisher of
Consumer Reports(r), is an expert, independent nonprofit organization
whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all
consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves. To achieve
this mission, we test, inform, and protect. To maintain our independence
and impartiality, CU accepts no outside advertising, no free test
samples, and has no agenda other than the interests of consumers. CU
supports itself through the sale of our information products and
services, individual contributions, and a few noncommercial grants.
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