A quiet coup is taking place in American medicine cabinets. Prescription bottles bearing catchy brand names like Zoloft and Flonase are being pushed aside by tongue-twisting generics like sertraline and fluticasone propionate.
While the trend is already pinching the profits of big pharmaceutical companies, it is rare good medical news for American pocketbooks.
Patents provide 20-year protection from generic competition. But because companies often apply for patents in early stages of drug development, before drugs are approved, pharmaceuticals may have fewer years of what is called effective patent protection.
And now, as nearly every big drug maker watches its best sellers fade away, there are fewer potential blockbuster drugs waiting to take their place.
Did you see the part about fewer blockbuster drugs waiting to take their place? Feel like a sucker yet? If you or your insurance company paid out the ass for Norvasc, Flonase, Ambien, Zantac, Claritin, Prlosec, or any other no generic available in the 90's med you should. If you had the bad manners to complain about the price back then you more than likely got a condescending lecture about how your money was necessary to finance the ever so expensive research and development that brought these meds to market. Many of my colleagues in the profession reading this have probably given those lectures. Some may also believe it.
Except that drug companies spend almost twice as much on marketing as on research and development. What you were told you were buying was the next big medical breakthrough. What you got were commercials telling you to ask your doctor about Clarinex, which doesn't work any better than (now over the counter) Claritin, or Celebrex, which is no more effective than ibuprofen. Back to the Times:
“At the end of the day, it’s basically a failure of innovation,” said Richard T. Evans, a consultant with the firm Avos Life Sciences, a research and consulting firm for the drug industry.
Don't worry though, Big Pharma may be in a slump, but they are not about to give up:
“I don’t think we would support the contention that there’s a lull,” said Caroline Loew, the industry group’s senior vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs. Citing diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cancer, she said, “The companies are tackling diseases that are extremely complex. The biological mechanisms are very poorly understood. By definition, that sort of science, which is very much emerging science, is going to take longer.”
How is Big Pharma getting ready to kick some disease ass? Here's an example:
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. announced Monday it will shutter its massive research and development facility in Ann Arbor and cut 2,410 jobs in Michigan by the end of 2008
Now, I would have thought the way to overcome extremely complex diseases that are poorly understood would be to expand your R&D facilities. I guess that's why I never made it in the world of research. Who knew the answer was actually to eliminate them?
Pfizer obviously is on to something, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery you know:
Last week, the big drug maker Johnson & Johnson announced it would eliminate up to 4,800 jobs
The CEO of Johnson and Johnson by the way, one William C Weldon, was awarded a bonus of 3 million dollars in fiscal 2006. Probably for all that innovation that has Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s on the ropes. Or for coming up with a slightly different version of a schizophrenia med that has been on the market for years. Ask your doctor if Invega is right for you. Don't mention Risperdal though.
So, let's review:
High prices for you, because innovation is expensive.
Innovation takes a nosedive.
William C Weldon and Hank McKinnell, the former CEO of Pfizer, receive combined bonuses of $5 million while laying off 7200 people whose job it was to help innovate.
Feel like a sucker yet?
4 comments:
I think the biggest thing people should be pissed off about, but will never know, is that many of those big dollar brands that were so great cost only pennies to make. Norvasc was hundreds of dollars, but the generic is on the order of ten dollars a bottle. I thought the best was Lamisil it cost the pharmacy about $10/pill the generic is $7/bottle.
Generics are easier to come by in Canada, but for some reason, customers are convinced that the brand name drug actually works better....and are willing to pay the extra $$$ for it. Go figure.
Same thing happens here (Aust). Yesterday I went to the chemist to purchase Mersyndol "Day Strength" - 500mg paracetiamol & 8mg codeine - $5.95 for 12 tabs. Generic Brand had 10 mg of codeine - $4.95 for 20/24 (cant remember which) tabs.
What is even more stunning is that, even though they whine and complain about development costs, the pharmaceutical companies are heavily subsidized by government. Taxpayers are already shouldering the majority of R&D costs through grants, tax breaks, and other government pork programs.
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