Me-too compound
A Me-too drug is a drug product that contains an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API, or in common parlance the drug) which is chemically related, and usually very structurally similar, to an existing active pharmaceutical ingredient. The "me-too" may differ in some respects from the prototype API (i.e. different side effect profile, or more or less active), but is used for the same purpose as the original. This term is usually used in a negative way (the idea being the "me-too" drug simply rode the coattails of the research and development done to develop the prototype API), but it is worth noting that me-too drugs can be novel compounds themselves, and drug products containing them can serve as market competition, driving prices down. [1] "This has meant that as soon as a prototype drug becomes available several other similarly active compounds immediately follow. These followers are usually called "me-too drugs". Me-too drugs can be broadly defined as chemically related to the prototype, or other chemical compounds which have an identical mechanism of action." [2]