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Why your medicine costs so much.(Have You Heard?)
When is a citizen not exactly a citizen? When it's a pharmaceutical company looking to increase its profits. Let me explain.
Generic drugs, the low-cost chemical twins of brand-name drugs, should be on the market soon after the big money makers' patents expire. But some generics aren't reaching stores as quickly as they could because of delays at the Food and Drug Administration and because of stalling tactics by makers of brand-name drugs. A few of the most effective--and offensive--of the tactics:
* The FDA allows any person or company to file a citizen petition challenging generic-drug approval. These petitions could raise serious safety concerns, but more often they are frivolous. When a petition is filed, the FDA delays approval until it completes an investigation, which may take more than a year. Meanwhile, the brand-name drug is the only version sold.
According to the FDA, only 3 of 42 petitions answered between 2001 and 2005 raised issues that merited changes in the agency's policies about a drug. What effect could this have had on you? It might have cost you a lot more during allergy season. Flonase, a commonly used prescription allergy medication, went off patent in May 2004. But GlaxoSmithKline, the drugmaker, stretched its profit-making window by almost two years with petitions and a legal challenge. Generic versions became available this year.
* Brand-name drug companies pay generic-drug companies to stay out of the market. It's a win-win ...
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THE WHITE HOUSE proposed new regulations last week that would make it easier for generic drugs to reach the market by blocking brand-name pharmaceutical companies from filing multiple patent-protection lawsuits. "I'm taking action to close the loopholes, to promote fair competition and to reduce
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...profits for the multinational drug companies" is their mantra. No, Ralph...about 30 large multi-national drug companies. Most of these are based in...and restore to the brand-name drug companies the 20 years' patent protection...
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- Press release article from: PR Newswire November 13, 1986 700+ words
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- Newspaper article from: Kiplinger Business Forecasts July 7, 2000 700+ words
...potential gains for generic drug companies. Between 2000 and 2005...third strategy: More drug companies will apply to the FDA...that only their brand-name drug will do. In 1999, drug companies spent $1.8 billion...
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- Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor October 15, 2002 700+ words
...was particularly concerned with drug companies hiring doctors and other healthcare...them to cover a particular brand-name drug. The primary concern is that these...which represents the brand-name drug companies, defends its practices and says...
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- Transcript from: NPR Morning Edition October 26, 1995 700+ words
...profits from several big drug companies. A bipartisan group of senators...consumers' pockets. The drug companies are lobbying hard against...dollar loophole for brand name drug makers. A bipartisan group...to give that break to the drug companies?' In the name of God...
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- Press release article from: PR Newswire October 6, 1987 700+ words
...DOCTOR TO COMPARE BRAND NAME DRUG WITH GENERIC 'EQUIVALENT...compared to the brand name drug. But often more than...fact, he said, four drug companies produce generic carbamazepine...said. But if the brand name drug wins, then the long...