Drug Patents Essay

They have also attacked patent listings in the Food and Drug Administration “Orange Book” and have alleged monopolization through fraud on the Patent and Trademark Office and sham litigation. Yet other cases have condemned distribution agreements as unlawful exclusive dealing. These government actions have led to substantial private class action litigation against the pharmaceutical industry. The FTC has also challenged numerous mergers and acquisitions in the industry over the last decade. One common feature in all of these cases is the need to define a relevant market. In nonmerger cases, the FTC and private plaintiffsgenerally allege narrow markets, limited to a single drug and its generic equivalent in some cases and to generic drugs excluding the bioequivalent “brand-name” drug in other cases. In its merger challenges, on the other hand, the FTC has alleged markets ranging from those based upon a particular chemical compound, to broader markets based upon various drugs’ manner of interaction or dosage form, to still broader markets of all drugs used to treat a disease or condition. In numerous pharmaceutical merger challenges, the government has included in the market not only currently marketed drugs but also other drugs under development, alleging “innovation markets.”

There are multiple health concerns worldwide and more and more drugs are needed every day. Many drugs however, are extremely expensive to develop, test, and produce. According to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (2002), it costs up to $802 million to bring a new drug to the market. In 2002, pharmaceutical companies spent $34 billion in research and development (Center-Watch, 2003). In addition to the costs, the overall time from the discovery to approve and market the drug can take up to 15 years.

Many other drugs also lose patent protection leading to the creation of substitutes that are cheaper.

This report is Part 1 of assignment for Marketing MBA 565-MBOL1 to Dr. Stephen Baglione

* No foreseeable new product in pipeline. Currently takes up to 11,000 compounds to be screened to find one (1) compound to send through final testing (human trials). And even then it’s not guaranteed to make it past the FDA.

Pharmaceutical companies are provided with temporary monopoly rights on the production of new drugs which result in a higher cost on consumers. If competing companies were allowed to produce generic forms of those drugs, consumers will be able to afford those medications even in cases where those consumers have no insurance coverage. The company responsible for developing and inventing the original medication could be offered incentives to invent in the future by either obtaining tax breaks or NIH funding for future research. They could even be offered a percentage of the sales of the generic drugs. Economist Gary S. Becker advocates dropping many FDA requirements that, in his opinion, provide no additional safety measures but rather delay the development of new drugs.[12] Betamethasone, for example, has been part of the standard prenatal care in Europe since the late 1970’s while it got adopted in the U.S. after 1997. On many occasions, the FDA ignores all scientific evidence concerning certain drugs because the manufacturer did not follow their mandated bureaucratic standards.

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most powerful and greedy industries in our country, with a goal to make as large a profit as possible, at the expense of the sick.

There are many direct to consumer advertising for prescription drugs. On television, magazines, radio etc, you see the most recent advertisements for prescription drugs. After some people see the advertisements they soon rush over to their doctor and their illness and life would be perfectly pain and stress free. Making the public conscious of options for treatment is not a bad thing. But these false advertisements are misleading consumers onto unnecessary treatment.

The high prices set by pharmaceutical companies for drugs allows the companies to continue researching, developing, and producing new drugs. As new diseases are discovered, new medications must be discovered in order to treat them.

OXFORD, Oct. 25 – “At 5 months old my daughter was diagnosed with cancer in both of her eyes” said Ellen Flannery, the Founder and Executive Director of CancerFree KIDS. Cancer is the number two leading cause of death among children between the ages of 5-14. By the time you finish reading this paragraph, two more people have passed away from a form of cancer across the United States.

* Monopoly Power. Pharmacists often face questions from patients regarding how prices of medications are determined and why, in some cases, they are so expensive. Unlike markets for other goods, in the pharmaceutical marketplace there are a limited number of manufacturers and the medication being sold are not identical, but rather are differentiated. There is a guarantee via patent protection that no potential competitor may manufacture an identical drug and sell it at a lower price in the short run. As a result, the branded manufacturer is able to make profits. Since there is only one seller, the monopolist determines the price of the medicine. This establishes the monopolist as a price setter, permitting prices above the perfectly competitive price by controlling the quantity of medication produced in the marketplace. This is in stark contrast to being a price taker, and accepting a price established within a perfectly competitive marketplace. The end result is that prices are higher under these market conditions than they would be in a purely competitive marketplace.

We in America tend to take medications for almost any problem we have, from headaches to gastrointestinal pain, to more serious chronic disorders such as depression and attention deficit disorder. While many of the uses of such medications may be necessary and legitimate, many are not, and due to this fact, many people become dependent on medications, mentally, and or physically. This problem is not simply the fault of the individual; in fact, the blame can also be placed upon the medical community, and the pharmaceutical companies who produce the drugs. How often can one turn on the television to see advertisements for Claritin, Aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, or even Zoloft or Ritalin? The pharmaceutical industry is motivated by monetary

This is obviously a huge topic in bioethics debates, especially recently after various changes in Federal Healthcare protocols. Some people depend on pharmaceuticals as a daily part of their routine, requiring some medicine or other for a condition or health issue. A prime example of this is the recent hike in the price of epinephrine shots, commonly known as the Epipen produced by Mylan Pharmaceuticals. This medication has seen a huge increase in pricing rising from roughly $50 in 2007 to over $600 this year. This is a shot used for common allergic reactions and therefore is used or carried by millions of people every day. The concern then is that pricing will get too high and patients will have to do without some medications leaving them vulnerable or even helpless in the face of certain conditions.

In our experience with Pharmasim we learned that Marketing decision making must be very sensitive and responsive to everything going on in the industry which is very complex. Consumer responses to marketing tactics can be volatile and unpredictable and no idea is guaranteed to work well. Marketing is a matter of meticulous research, assumptions, planning, and volatility at times. Overall we took away two major points: 1) that it is important to consider the product lifecycle in evaluating how to promote businesses and, 2) that the “Sweet Spot” as a competitive advantage should be the greatest point of consideration when evaluating how to best gain leverage to beat the competition in the minds of

Specify the types of country risks that pharmaceutical firms face in international business. How do the political and legal systems of countries affect the global pharmaceutical industry?