Pleiotropy (drugs) can respond to them, because the endogenous ones are endocrine messengers. Pleiotropy (drugs) In pharmacology, pleiotropy includes all of a drug's actions other than those for which the agent was specifically developed. It may include adverse effects which are detrimental ones, but is often used to denote additional beneficial effects. For example, statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors that primarily act by decreasing cholesterol synthesis, but which are believed to have other beneficial effects, including acting as antioxidants and stabilizing atherosclerotic plaques. Steroid drugs, such as prednisone and prednisolone, have pleiotropic effects, including systemic ones, for the same reason that endogenous
Specialty drugs in the United States and prescribe." Drugs are most typically defined as specialty because they are expensive. They are high cost "both in total and on a per-patient basis". High-cost medications are typically priced at more than $1,000 per 30-day supply. The Medicare Part D program "defines a specialty drug as one that costs more than $600 per month". Most of the prescriptions filled by Pennsylvania-licensed Philidor Rx Services, a specialty online mail-order pharmacy, which mainly sold Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc expensive drugs directly to patients and handled insurance claims on the customers' behalf, such as Solodyn, Jublia, and Tretinoin, would be considered specialty