Consumers losing the brand-name/generic drug battle

TRIGAUX E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published December 19, 2001

How goes the drug war? Not that one, but rather the drug war by pharmaceutical giants to keep generic versions of their top-selling brand drugs off the market. That's the war that's really socking it to our wallets.

Florida, with its vast supply of elderly patients, is one of the pharmaceutical industry's big battlefields.

The latest conflict involves the attorneys general of Florida and 28 other states. They filed an antitrust lawsuit this week against Bristol-Myers Squibb. The states allege the New York drug company illegally kept generic versions of its BuSpar anxiety medication off the market, cheating consumers out of millions of dollars.BuSpar generated $700-million in sales last year.

The states are suing for the money they say they lost without a generic option. And at least two companies with generic versions of BuSpar are awaiting approval to make their drugs available.

Don't forget that generic drugs typically sell for half the price of brand-name counterparts. That price difference can add up to big savings, especially to those living on fixed incomes.

While a leading drug is protected by a patent, a company has the exclusive right to sell it. That can mean a single popular drug can generate billions of dollars in sales. But when the drug's patent expires, that exclusive right vanishes and the drug loses much of its value.

Remember our Cipro frenzy this fall in response to the anthrax scares? The federal government was able to pressure Cipro manufacturer Bayer into slashing its high price by threatening to take away its patent-protected monopoly.

Is the latest spat over BuSpar a big deal? Not by itself. But brand-name drugmakers are fighting generic introductions across the spectrum of pharmaceuticals.

Consider drug giant AstraZeneca. The maker of top-selling prescription drug Prilosec went to court this month to try to halt several smaller companies from selling cheaper versions of its blockbuster ulcer/heartburn treatment. The Food and Drug Administration last month approved Andrx Corp.'s generic version, but the Fort Lauderdale drugmaker is awaiting the outcome of the court case before putting it on the market.

(Andrx also squared off in court this month with Canada's Biovail Corp. over Biovail's attempts to delay a generic version of its heart drug, Tiazac.)

By 2010, if not before, America's bill for drugs could well bust the health care budget. Blame it on a triple whammy. First, the number of expensive new medicines is exploding. Second, Americans are using more and more drugs. And third, the U.S. population is aging at a rapid clip.

That all spells big trouble ahead.

Already, aggressive HMOs and other health-benefits organizations are pushing to switch consumers from brand-name pills to cheaper generic drugs. And a few states, notably Florida and Michigan, are legislating discounts from drug companies participating in lucrative Medicaid programs.

But is it enough? No way.

Super-expensive, brand-name drugs seem to be cropping up every week. Camptosar, for example, is the name of Pharmacia Corp.'s colon cancer treatment. Its typical cost per patient per year: $60,000.

Maybe that's a wonder drug. I wonder who will pay for it.

If 2001 is remembered (among other things) as the year of the recession, it also should be known as the year of corporate bankruptcy.

Let's look at the dismal numbers:

$250-billion: the combined assets of public companies filing for bankruptcy this year (so far).

$95-billion: assets of public bankruptcies last year.

231: record number of public companies that filed for bankruptcy this year (so far).

176: how many filed for Chapter 11 last year.

39: record number of companies with assets of at least $1-billion that went bankrupt this year.

21: how many $1-billion-plus companies went bankrupt last year.

Short takes

WHEN DO WE GET A BREAK? Lately, selling Florida to distant companies has grown tougher. The state was skewered during the presidential elections for sloppy vote counting. It was a staging area for terrorists and, later, anthrax. Now comes another kick in the state's pants. Of the 10 worst metro areas nationwide for fatal traffic accidents, Florida is home to five, says the Road Information Program, a nonprofit research group in Washington. The Florida metro areas, ranked by the number of traffic deaths per 100,000 residents in 2000, are: No. 1 Orlando (18.8 deaths); No. 2 Tampa-St. Petersburg (17.6); No. 3 West Palm Beach (16.6); No. 8 Jacksonville (14.6), and No. 9 Fort Lauderdale (14.5).

WANT FRIES WITH THAT REFUND? McDonald's, where have you gone? Consumers are more satisfied with service from the Internal Revenue Service than with service from the fast-food giant. So says a new study by the American Customer Satisfaction Index compiled by the University of Michigan. The IRS scored 62 on the index. McDonald's latest score: 59. What would an IRS burger taste like? . . .

A REBATE FROM MOTHER NATURE: The nation's consumers, especially those up north, just got an unexpected windfall to help fight the recession. Thanks to warm weather this season, heating oil and natural gas consumption fell by as much as 5 percent. Combine that with a 25 to 30 percent decline in oil and gas prices since Sept. 11 and Americans have an extra $35-billion to spend on things other than energy. That, says Morgan Stanley Dean Witter economist Richard Bernert, is about the size of the federal tax rebate.

- Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8405.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright