I'm in the US, and there are a couple of wrinkles to this: insurance typically won't cover off label use, so patients end up paying the full cost of the medication, and if there is a big enough market, I believe companies can patent the new use even if the patents for the original use have run out.
Doctors here are allowed to prescribe them though.
Insurance will have prior authorization rules for certain drugs that are expensive that require the doctor to submit documentation of the condition, but in most cases the common medication is simply covered if prescribed. The insurance company does not receive documentation of every condition for every prescription to determine if the prescription is on label or off label.
Insurance companies can and do also support some off label treatments that are commonly used under their prior auth requirements.
I don’t know why there are so many comments in this thread making confident assertions that off label prescribing or insurance or so uncommon. This happens all day long at doctors offices and pharmacies.
Agreeing. There is a ton of blatant misinformation being shared in this thread by people who seem utterly confident despite their apparently complete ignorance.
"COM claims can be difficult to gain for repurposed compounds, as the patentee must somehow differentiate their patent claims over what is in the public domain and present data that the drug is a credible candidate for the new indication [41, 42]."
Did you actually read that article that spends many pages explaining how there is no good way for a firm to patent a repurposed drug that is working the same way as it worked in a prior indication, but is being used for a new indication where it has the same function - exactly what you’re asserting and what I said is not possible?
Doctors here are allowed to prescribe them though.