Ultra-cheap drugs worry generic makers

AP via yahoo ^ | 6/21/06 | THERESA AGOVINO

[paudio]

NEW YORK - It's a novel approach in the long battle between brand name drugs and their generic rivals: Merck & Co. is slashing the price of its cholesterol drug Zocor so low for one insurance plan that members will actually pay less for the original pills than for the generic.

That tactic has some consumer advocates fearing the practice will spark a movement among Big Pharma, compounding other pressures they fear will weaken the generic industry and compromise the country's source of low-cost drugs.

Under the deal, members of UnitedHealth Group Inc. will pay around $10 for a month's supply of brand name Zocor and $40 for a generic after the drug loses patent protection on Friday. Both Merck and UnitedHealth say the arrangement demonstrates how market competition drives down costs, and that's good for patients.

Consumer advocates typically cheer lower prices but in this instance they worry that a short term benefit for patients will ultimately result in long term problems. They say moves such as Merck's undermine generic companies' chances to generate the profits that fuel their ability to conduct research and challenge drug company patents — eventually resulting in fewer cheap medicines.

[dead]

So the consumer advocates are against low prices because it might help corporations.

Just illustrates that the whole dopey "consumer advocate" label is a just a disingenous mask, hiding their real agenda.

They are anti-capitalist marxists who despise the free market.

[Dog Gone]

All prices should be fixed at a "fair" profit, and all salaries should be set by a governmental panel.

Everyone will be employed and nobody will be poor.

In fact, we'll have these same government experts decide what should be made and where it should be sold.

I'm thinking about publishing my idea.

[diamond6]

This is going to sound like a dumb question.... but I'll ask anyway.

When a pharma company creates a new drug, they patent them. How can another company make the same drug if it "belongs" to another?

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

You could write a manifesto and start a revolution!

[mewzilla]

I think the patent, unless it's extended or a drug is tweaked, expires after 10 years.

[corkoman]

How can another company make the same drug if it "belongs" to another?

When the patent expires anyone can market a product with the drug as a "generic" equivalent if their knockoff has the same properties (dissolving, absorption) as the original.

Regulation changes in the early 1980s allowed the generic industry to blossom.

If the pioneering company decides to low-ball the price of its cash-cow after patent expiration thats their prerogative.

[diamond6]

Thanks for your reponses.

[Dog Gone]

Brilliant!!

[pissant]

And the problem is????

[Dubya]

bump

[cowtowney]

"I'm thinking about publishing my idea."

ROFLMAO

[chief911]

Seems Merck thinks this is the best way to compete with the generics. If they lower the price to a point they still make a profit and it prices the generics out of the market, so be it. They lost (or will lose) the patent anyway. They should still have the chance to make money though. All those that have been screaming about the price of drugs should be overjoyed. But, alas, they walk around like Bad Luck Schleprock with a cloud of doom over their heads.

[A. Pole]

When a pharma company creates a new drug, they patent them. How can another company make the same drug if it "belongs" to another?

They play games. First they "privatize" the results of government sponsored reasearch, then after patent expires they play games and tricks to prevent domestic competition to provide generic version etc ... The money is the main motive, they do not give hoot about consumers.

One medicine which I use is very expensive in USA and generic version is not available here. I can get it generic from Poland at 10% of price.

Funny thing is that this medication was invented in France years ago and the patent in US is controlled by a German company.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

everything you ever wanted to know about the simvastatin patents is here.......Merck is not just being "nice"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=simvastatin+patent

[monkeyshine]

I nominate you for a career in posting on internet forums, at $83,000 a year plus benefits, which apparantly won't cost that much after all.

[ReformedBeckite]

I'm thinking about publishing my idea.

Ah we'll have to form a government panel and get back to you on that, but I doubt if they'll let you publish your ideas unless you give them a cut of the profits.

[Auntie Mame]

I clicked on the link. I don't suppose you'd give me the Reader's Digest version, would you?

[buccaneer81]

I think the patent, unless it's extended or a drug is tweaked, expires after 10 years.

I work in the industry and I've heard of as long as 17 years. Patents are often granted during the development stage, so by the time the drug receives FDA approval and comes to market, there may only be seven to ten years of patent protection remaining.

[nmh]

"All prices should be fixed at a "fair" profit, and all salaries should be set by a governmental panel.

Everyone will be employed and nobody will be poor.

In fact, we'll have these same government experts decide what should be made and where it should be sold.

I'm thinking about publishing my idea."

Your ideas have already been published.

Go study Karl Marx for details of an age old idea - socialism and if by FORCE it's called communism.