'No generics' deals blocked pet owners from cheaper flea-and-tick treatment, lawsuit claims

[douglas9]

et owners paying for Advantage II and K9 Advantix II topical flea-and-tick treatments could have saved hundreds of dollars by now had they switched to the generic versions that first hit the market six years ago.

But first, they would have had to find them.

Cheaper equivalents for the blockbuster brands, which both kill and repel pests, have quietly eluded consumers for years. Even today, they’re nowhere to be found at many of the biggest pet specialty stores, like PetSmart or Petco. And they’re absent from popular online pet pharmacies like Chewy.com or PetMed Express.


Their elusiveness is not by accident, according to a federal lawsuit by one of the generic’s makers, but a scheme by the brand-name products’ company to block competition.

Filed in the U.S. District Court in Northern California, the lawsuit by Tevra Brands offers a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of the multibillion-dollar pet medication market, where a few major companies have a stranglehold on pricing. Tevra’s suit claims it lost tens of millions of dollars because Bayer Animal Health, a former subsidiary of the German pharmaceutical giant, conspired to maintain its monopoly over the treatment it created.

Tevra sells its generic topical treatments for cats and dogs on its website, on Amazon and elsewhere, but the company argues that Bayer prevented it from reaching pet owners where they’re most likely to shop and depriving them of a better deal.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/05/18/k9-advantix-flea-tick-medicine-generic-bayer-tevra/70220325007/

[True Dough]

1. Interesting. Thanks for posting!

I have bookmarked a website that sells Trevra Brands' products and I think I'll try them out next year.

For this spring/summer/fall, we're all set with oral flea and tick meds recommended by our veterinarian. They are convenient because you just drop a pill in with the dog's food once a month. No fussing with an application, but the expense is out of this world. Several hundred dollars for the two dogs.

With the difference in price through Tevra's products, I'm going to try switching in 2024.

[70sEraVet]

2. The 'Free Market' ain't very free -- or much of a market!

[raging moderate]

3. I once almost killed my sweet cat by using a cheaper flea powder I found.

She ran off in horror, then dropped to the ground, gasping. I gave her a bath and dried her off and held her for a long, long time. After that, I just used the safe but expensive flea treatments.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

5. American capitalism is sick, infected with unrestrained greed and a compliant corporate friendly

Justice system that imprisons the poor, fines the Rich..if the rich ever get caught.

[Farmer-Rick]

4. We continue to ignore anti-trust laws

And corporate monopolies are everywhere in the US. Why do we have greedflation? Because of monopolies. Without monopolies, corporate control of prices disappears.

Controlling markets and prices is what monopolies are all about.

Why do you think the farmer down the road doesn't sell his products at most all the grocery stores around him? Corporate control of the markets.

That's why everything is so expensive in the US when you compare to prices in other countries.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

6. Corporations control your entire body...without universal health care money is the goal, not health

of man or beast.

[Farmer-Rick]

7. Yeah, they are the trusts of the Robber Baron age

They have come back with a vengeance thanks to ignoring laws that restict monopolies.