When fipronil and imidacloprid were launched on the veterinary market several years ago we were bombarded with claim and counterclaim as to their relative efficiency, each claiming to be the wonder drug that gave a rapid kill of all fleas. In those days, as the marketers would have us believe, no other drug was necessary.
Now, with the passage of time, these marvellous compounds have come off patent and we now see the change of emphasis of the marketing. Suddenly IGRs are necessary to “break the life cycle”! This is a classic case of what is known in the pharmaceutical world as evergreening, finding a way to reinvent a patent and so extend product use in the face of generics.
IGRs themselves were extremely popular before the advent of fipronil and imidacloprid but, thanks to the high efficacy of these drugs, have fallen almost into the dustbin of history until being resurrected in such a manner.
Students of marketing will look on this as a classic case but the question
must be asked, are IGRs really necessary if the main active is so efficient? Many an argument can be made about gold standards in treatment and also turnover levels for the dispenser but, at the end of the day, there are a huge number of clients out there who find flea control becoming a prohibitive cost. In these uncertain economic times they will become more numerous and it will not just be pensioners and lower socio-economic groups looking at the issue.
In short “Main Street” needs to be aware of economical efficient ways to combat one of the most despised pests of all time. Fipronil has been shown to be outstandingly successful as an insecticide and does not need an IGR added to it for increased efficacy; dead fleas do not lay eggs and, as it kills on contact, regular fipronil usage will ensure there is no build up of eggs and larvae in the environment.
Now that Fiprovet, an easy to use and very economical spray preparation that kills adult fleas and larvae, is on the market “Main Street” has a product that is both affordable and highly effective.