Brand Name Medications

The rise in costs of prescription medicines affects all sectors of the health care industry, including private insurers, public programs, and patients. Spending on prescription drugs continues to be an important health care concern, particularly in light of rising pharmaceutical costs, the aging population, and increased use of costly specialty drugs. In recent history, increases in prescription drug costs have outpaced other categories of health care spending, rising rapidly throughout the latter half of the 1990s and early 2000s. (Kaiseredu.org, 2012).

In 2015, the pharmaceutical industry spent over 27 billion dollars on advertising. The two greatest components of this effort were promotional advertising and free medication sampling, which the pharmaceuticals invested 15.5 and 5.7 billion dollars respectively (“Persuading the Prescribers”). Promotional advertising involves direct contact with health professionals, the most common being extravagant lunch conferences held for physicians and their staff. On the other hand, sampling involves distributing free sample of medications to physicians, who then have a choice of providing these samples to patients. As a result of these methods, the industry has seen revenue around $400 billion with 90% of physicians having a relationship with a drug company (Campbell 2007). Moreover, the prices of prescriptions continue to rise; a copay of a generic drug is $11.72, preferred brand drug is $36.37 and a specialty drug is $58.37 (Coleman and Geneson 2014). Although the profits are immense in the numbers demonstrated above, it is no surprise when pharmaceutical drug companies elevate their prices even more. For instance, recently Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of their medication Daraprim from $13.50 to $750. Keep in mind, this medication is used for threatening parasitic infections, aids, and cancer with alternative options currently found to be inefficient (Pollack 2015). Another example of this practice involves cycloserine, a drug used to

The original company to introduce lorazepam to the world intended the medication to act as a cure for anxiety and other stress-conceived problems. During the first few years of Ativan being on the market, the original company, also known as the mother company, had exclusive rights to the FDA-approved drug. Since that company had incurred millions of dollars in expenses during the testing, researching, and marketing of lorazepam, the price of the medication was very high. After the mother company’s patent rights had expired, a lot of other companies started to make their own version of Ativan. Since the research and testing processes were already done by the mother company, the companies can produce cheap, generic versions Ativan

Nearly 7 in 10 Americans use prescribed drugs, for several reasons, everyday. Prescription drugs have become a huge problem to America's health care system due to their exponentially rising price - so America must ask ourselves why prescribed drugs are so expensive, how these prices affect us, and how we can fix these dangerously high prices.

The pharmaceutical industry includes companies that research, develop, market or distribute generic and branded drugs. The industry expanded during the 1980’s and drugs to treat heart disease and AIDS were prominent. Consumer demand for nutritional supplements and alternative medicine increased during the 1990’s with the Internet facilitating direct purchases of drugs. Advertising for direct consumption of pharmaceutical drugs became more prominent; pharmaceutical companies were criticized for over medicating personality or social problems.

With the growing reliance on medication therapy as the primary intervention for most illnesses, patients receiving medication interventions are exposed to potential harm as well as benefits. Medicines have proven to be very beneficial for treating illness and preventing disease. This success has resulted in a dramatic increase in medication use in recent times. Unfortunately, this increase in use and expansion of the pharmaceutical industry has also brought with it an increase in hazards, error and adverse events associated with medication use.

Diabetes patients all take a variety of prescription drugs. Some range from few medications such as insulin to many more medications to help control blood sugar and other side effects. There is a certain amount of difficulty concerning the search for generic medications for doctors to help patients get cheaper medications. “In 2014 for the fourth year in a row, spending on diabetes drugs was higher on a per-member basis than it was for any other class of traditional drug, according to the Express Scripts Drug Trend Report. Fewer than half of the prescriptions filled for diabetes treatments were generic” (People with diabetes are facing rising prices for life saving drugs, 2015, para 5).

Other factors include the use of distribution systems, drug shortages, pharmaceutical manufacturer mergers and acquisitions, patent expirations, cost and availability of raw materials, and profit driven businesses (Abramowitz & Cobaugh, 2016). The rising cost of prescription drugs and healthcare in general challenges the access and affordability of quality care to consumers not just in the United but also consumers around the world (GEN News, 2012). In addition to cost and access to care, the continuous rise in prescriptions drugs may have a negative effect on utilization of healthcare and satisfaction with healthcare system (Abramowitz & Cobaugh,

The biosimilar can not be called generic because are not clinically interchangeable. The biosimilar do not have the same chemical active ingredient of the novel product as the generic drug. In comparison with a generic, the biosimilar to be approved needs to be have clinical and preclinical studies while the generic do not require this studies but pharmacokinetics tests.

Don’t just decide that you are going to go generic instead of prescription without talking to the doctor because it might end up not taking care of the symptoms or problems that the prescription drugs or medications are made for. Although sometimes generic brands may not be as strong, they are cheaper and can still do the job(s) you want it to do, but at a lower price than you would have to pay for prescriptions.

There were two important developments in the 1970s which further shaped the industry in the form that we see today. Firstly, the Thalidomide tragedy (where an antiemetic given for morning sickness caused birth defects) led to much tighter regulatory controls on clinical trials, greatly increasing development costs. Secondly, enactment of legislation to set a fixed period on patent protection (typically 20 years from initial filing as a research discovery) led to the appearance of “generic” medicines. Generics medicines are those that have exactly the same active ingredients as the original brand, and compete on price.

The branded pharmaceutical firms account for more than 50% of worldwide pharmaceutical sales. Thus they make huge profits. These profits can be used to fund hospitals in poor areas. This will not only give the firms respect but also a good recognition. Generic medicines are cheap and easily available. Though they may not be effective, but they serve the purpose for the poor. Some generic medicines may not give the desired results but the major diseases which occur among the poor people can be treated with generic medicines.

In the United States, a drug can only be advertised legally after being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Once attaining at least one FDA-approved use, physicians can prescribe a drug for other unapproved uses, based on their clinical judgment; this is referred to as “off-label use” (McCambridge, 2008). In general, marketing drugs for off-label uses is illegal; however, pharmaceutical companies have gone to various lengths within their legal rights to accomplish exactly that.

Yes, there is an impact on the pharmaceutical company, like those in the US as a result of differential prices between that country and other nations.

Consumers do not always evaluate prices objectively. Often a referenced price is a known and available price, like that of a competitor. Pricing Datril at par with Tylenol and advertising it as a new substitute with same features may have been a fraught tactic in a short-run test environment. Market penetration and share take time and is unknown. Additionally, a price war could have ensued with Tylenol due to cost differences especially in advertising.