Patients respond differently to medications, therefore choices among drug treatments are important because physicians can determine what treatments are best for individual patients. Older patients, in particular, may react differently to medications because of frailty, differences in organ function or the co-existence of a number of medical conditions. Product alternatives allow physicians to tailor treatment to individual patient needs.

Beneficiaries with three or more chronic conditions account for nearly 90 percent of Medicare spending. Having a choice of treatment options allows physicians to treat patients with more than one condition by choosing from a variety of medications within a therapeutic class to avoid potentially dangerous drug-to-drug interactions or drug-to-disease interactions.

Albert Wertheimer, Pharmaceuticals for Elders: Why Innovation Matters, Healthcare and Aging, Vol9, No.1, American Society on Aging
Congressional Budget Office based on the statement of Gerard Anderson, Director, Robert wood Johnson Foundation before the Subcommittee on health of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Apr. 16, 2002
D. Nash, J, Koenig, M. Chatterton, Why the Elderly Need individualized Pharmaceutical Care, Thomas Jefferson University, April 2000.