• '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    How do you feel about it, CC?

    I know that pharmecitical companies need to recoup the moneys invested in developing the drugs.  I also understand that is why they charge a premium and get soletary rights to the drug for a number of years.

    But after that period has ended, I see no reason, what-so-ever, a person needs to get the name brand drug instead of the generic version.  Especially when you can get 20 pills of Gabapentin for $12 and 20 pills of Neurontin for $157 and they’re identical (except 1’s stamped Gabapentin, the other Neurontin).


  • Even though I created this thread, I have been neglecting it.  I still need to read some points, but I appreciate everyone’s POV (I also appreciate that it hasn’t turned into a slugfest).


  • Jermo, for the record, I TRIED to make it a slugfest.  CC let you down, not me.  :-D

    Regarding patent law and the impact on society, here’s a good link that has is a fairly direct analogy to drug patents.  It’s not about socialized medicine per se, but it does address a critical concept in creating new things and the role of the marketplace and government:
    http://www.cjr.org/issues/2006/5/Vaidhyanathan.asp

    It talks about fair use under copyright law, which is the media equivalent of manufacturing generic drugs.  The patent for a drug is on a “recipe”, not the end product.  You can’t use the recipe without permission, and that is an intellectual construct rather than physical property.

    And as you would expect from my links, it is wicked long.

    Peace

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Oh yea, and isn’t there this thing called the Hippocratic Oath that says something along the lines of “I’ll help anyone in need to the best of my ability regardless of if they are insured or not.”  (I added parts in, obviously.  But you get the drift.  A doctor who receives a gun shot victem pretty much has to treat the injuries first, then worry about getting paid.  At least in the United States.  I can’t speak for other nations.  Maybe the nation of Ik (a nation commonly invented by historians/sociologists to play devil’s advocate) would video tape the gun shot victem bleeding to death since he isn’t insured???)


  • My thoughts on generics . . .
    As a scientist, i do have a problem with an entity lifting the results of my labor, and using them for their own gain without any assistance.  Generic companies do not develop the original molecule, they do not do any of the phase i-iv trials, they do not provide physicians with ANY new indications, safety or other data.  Furthermore they remove the impetus for the original pharma companies to continue to do trials and testing when their patent runs out, which causes us to rely on academic and gov’t institutions to provide this research (which i understand Jen is against).  Furthermore, i am not sure how it works in the US, but just because a company claims to provide a “generic version” of a medication does not mean that we are, in fact, receiving the equivalent of the developer’s product (in Canada the product only has to contain 85% of the product).  Also the generic company does not carry responsibility for its product (when i worked for Novartis, our medical director was subpoened to attend an inquiry related to the effect of the generic version of the product as the generic company did not have a medical director.  Finally these companies rarely provide any original research, and often they do not sell their product at a low enough price to warrant a switch from the original product, however they gift the pharmacies in order to persuade a switch.

    Don’t get me wrong - i can understand the need for a “cheaper alternative” - especially for low-income and seniors, however this could easily be facilliated by gov’t.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Hmm, no idea how it works in Canada.  But the Food and Drug Administration - if it is working properly, and it probably isn’t because it’s a federal program and most federal programs don’t work well to begin with, being filled with crooks and sharlatans most of the time - in the United States is supposed to guarentee us that if it’s a Generic Drug then it is equivalent to the name brand, just as if Keebler says their Grasshopper Cookies have 40 calories per serving and a serving size is half a cookie, then it is an accurate report.

    But as I said, that’s how it’s supposed to work.  However, I am so anti-federal it isn’t even funny.  My Political Science and my Advanced History Courses are just making me even more anti-federal government as I study exactly what the fore-fathers of this nation said, did and wrote.

    Basically, until FDR, just about every US Politician was for weak central governments and strong state governments in so much as who actually weilded the power, not who had override authority.

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