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Products coded as generic equivalents but with different bioequivalence are not comparable #10

Closed sebbacon closed 7 years ago

sebbacon commented 7 years ago

The Qvar 100 Easy-Breathe Inhaler 100mcg delivers 200 doses in a form that is twice as effective as the standard budesonide inhaler. Therefore a 100mcg dose of Qvar is equivalent to a 200mcg dose of other budesonide inhalers.

This means we can't compare Qvar with other budesonide inhalers (there is only one brand prescribed currently, Clenil Modulite).

Accordingly, we should exclude the following codes:

  p.bnf_code LIKE '0302000C0____BE' OR
  p.bnf_code LIKE '0302000C0____BF' OR
  p.bnf_code LIKE '0302000C0____BG' OR
  p.bnf_code LIKE '0302000C0____BH' OR
  p.bnf_code LIKE '0302000C0____BE' OR
  p.bnf_code LIKE '0302000C0____BE'
sebbacon commented 7 years ago

There was a discussion about if we can use the bioequivalence flag in DM+D to automate this. The conclusion was that we shouldn't bother; however, I want to understand the outcome and document it here.

https://ebmdatalab.slack.com/archives/general/p1482413915000983 https://ebmdatalab.slack.com/archives/general/p1482485364001043

sebbacon commented 7 years ago

OK. So the conclusion is that non-bioequivalence may complicate things, but doesn't necessarily mean there are no possible savings.

Therefore, bioequivalence should be another "health warning" flag in our output data, ideally.