Diana,
<I recently read an article in the Independent Business Daily on why generics
are not preferable. Apparently, they are strictly older drugs and therefore
not the best medicine for us. I will try to see if I saved the article
rather than try to paraphrase whart I read a few weeks back. Anyone else see
this? Diana>
I have not read this article, but I have read several articles in the
past weeks where the pharmeceutical companies:
(1) issue "new and improved," which are not substantially different
from the prior drug but which extend the patent time for the drug companies
and thereby (a) keep those drugs from being available to the public as
generics at lower prices and (b) increase or maintain higher prices for the
drug companies; and
(2) fighting over the territories for issuing the generic drugs which
also results in higher prices for the public.
Bristol Meyers was recently sued by the federal government for fraud
for keeping a cancer drug from becoming available to sale to the public as a
generic. Bristol Meyers was trying to maintain its market share and its
higher prices for the drug.
Are generics "older drugs?" I don't know what you mean. If you mean
that the drugs are old, past their shelf life, and therefore unsafe, I doubt
it. There are regulations on the sale, including the quality and shelf life
of drugs. You can check with the doctors on this list, or you own doctor,
but I don't think that there is any reasonable argument to be made that a
generic is less safe or of lessor quality--it is, of course, cheaper for the
public. It is the SAME drug as the brand name, but it is manufactured for a
lessor price usually by a different company. Generics by definition are
older drugs in that they have been around long enough that the patents (which
result in higher prices) have expired. Drugs are so expensive, and so much
profit is to be made by the drug companies on a popular drug, that the other
drug companies line up to produce a drug, particularly a popular drug, as a
generic when the patent expires. There is a two-tiered structure, once that
patent expires, with the brand names with the higher prices on the top and
then the generics with the generally lower prices below. Most insurance
companies now require their customers to use the generic version of the drug
where available due to the higher cost of the brand name. The availability
of the drug as a generic means that the original drug company's market share
of the drug will be decreased and profits for the drug will be decreased.
The economic incentive for the drug company is to extend its monopoly under
the patent law as long as possible: that is why I am very skeptical about a
claim that generics, as a whole, are dangerous, unsafe, or "old."
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