CP3 Director Dr. Walid Gellad spoke with Reuters Health about a recent paper in JAMA Open that reported prescriptions for extended-release medications cost the United States billions more than quivalent short-acting drugs. Gellad noted that not all drugs are totally comparable but "there are many instances where people could use the short-acting form and wouldn't be burdened with side effects and would do just as well as with the extended-release form." He added, "One of the main messages for clinicians is that we should always offer the short-acting form to our patients if they can't afford the long-acting version."