The Wall Street Journal shows how a drug company uses classic tactics to:
A. raise its prices in advance of losing its patent and facing generic competitionCase in point: Cephalon Inc.'s Provigil narcolepsy drug is now 28% more expensive than in March and 74% more expensive than four years ago.
B. meantime launching a new "longer-acting" form of the same drug
C setting the new drug's price much lower than the suddenly-inflated old drug's price.
D. setting the hook before generic competition kicks in.
Meantime, the WSJ reminds us that "In September, Cephalon agreed to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of violating the U.S. Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and to pay $444 million to settle federal and state allegations that it promoted Provigil and two other drugs for off-label uses."
This strategy are not NEW to me. As a guy who are working in this industry, I am aware of this what we called "Black Hat" marketing tactics that most of our competitors do.