The headline above comes from a Knight Ridder newswire story. It depicts the two-year path it took for a cheaper generic version of the allergy drug Flonase to make it on the market.
An excerpt: "The delay was the result of a series of aggressive administrative and legal maneuvers by GlaxoSmithKline that thwarted the speedy entrance of the generic. After a federal judge in Baltimore rebuffed Glaxo's final legal challenge on March 6, the generic version by Roxane Laboratories hit store shelves. The generic sells for $61.99 at Walgreens.com, while Flonase costs $81.99. At CVS.com, the generic is $68.59 vs. $85.29 for Flonase.
For consumers, the case shows that good things eventually come to those who wait. But it also shows that a generic drug's path to the retail market is often long and contentious. The price and market share for a brand-name drug fall dramatically when a generic alternative becomes available, so former patent holders do all they can to stave off the competition.
According to Bain & Co., an international consulting firm, patents are set to expire on 75 brand-name drugs over the next two years and on an unprecedented 252 by 2014. A study by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association released on April 18 found consumers and health plans could save more than $26.4 billion over the next five years by using cheaper generic versions of just 14 brand-name drugs scheduled to lose their patent protection between now and 2009."
Posted by schwitz at April 28, 2006 09:36 AM | TrackBack