New And Improved Drugs? Pharma and the "Me Too" Concept

At Kaiser Permanente they do not include Invega on the list of drugs, as the active ingredient of Invega is derived from that of Risperdal...which is soon to go off patent protection and also manufactured by J and J, so they have 2 drugs...same active ingredient...so what is the catch...try to move patients from the one going off patent protection to the new and better improved Invega? This is just one example, there are others out there as well, thus we have the more confusing tiered drugs listed in formularies...in other words how much will the insurer cover...and is there any real truth to the "new and improved formula" or is this just plain old marketing? BD

New York psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman has heard Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) sales pitch for the new anti-schizophrenia drug Invega, but he's not too impressed.
Problem is, Invega isn't much different than one of J&J's best-selling drugs, the antipsychotic Risperdal. In late June, Risperdal is scheduled to lose its U.S. patent protection, clearing the way for competing generic copies that are cheaper than Invega, which could further diminish Invega sales, already characterized as a disappointment by J&J.
Drug companies have used follow-on drugs to try to offset some of the revenue lost when older, top-selling drugs lose patent protection and become exposed to generic knockoffs. The goal is to convince patients, doctors and drug plans to switch to the newer drug that carries a brand-name price and patent protection for years.
Some insurers aren't putting certain follow-on drugs on their lists of preferred drugs, or they're requiring members to pay higher out-of-pocket costs for these drugs than for other branded and generics.