More Generic Drugs Coming Soon

posted by Al Campbell

Generic pharmaceuticals save a lot of people a lot of money every year.  There are some big name drugs that will lose their legal protection this year and that signals generics coming online that fill the void a few months later.

It costs an enormous amount of money (in the billions of dollars) for a pharmaceutical company to successfully bring a new drug to market, and that is rewarded by patent protection for seven years.  Once the patent expires other companies are permitted to manufacture the generic equivalent of that name-brand drug.

Lipitor (Pfizer) is probably the biggest name brand “name” to be coming off patent late this year.  It sold about $11 BILLION worth last year.  Plavix is also among the name brands losing patent protection in coming months.

The “purple pill”, Nexium, is a great example.  When that drug was introduced about seven years ago, the manufacturer, AstraZeneca, bought a lot of television advertising and saturated newspapers and magazines with advertisements.  Doctors were besieged with requests from patients for Nexium.  Now Nexium is about to go off patent and there are, no doubt, several companies ready to bring their generic versions into the marketplace.  Most health insurance plans make both the brand name version and the generic version of drugs available but try to channel the consumer, through the use of co-payments, to the usually far less expensive but equally effective generic.  The cost differential can be very significant, and the efficacy of the generic is controlled by regulation to be very close to, if not equal to, the original brand name version.

Your pharmacist is among the best people to approach if you have questions about a brand name versus a generic version.  True, the doctor is writing the prescription and is very well versed.  He or she also probably uses a computer system that holds all the information on every version.  Not all of us are comfortable in calling the doctor’s office and worry that we’re taking too much of his or her time with our questions.  Many medical organizations are scheduling their physicians very tightly and that leaves less and less time for the doctor to interact with callers or e-mailers.

Pharmacists are more approachable and are very knowledgeable about the chemical composition of the medications, the interactions with other medications you may be taking, etc.  Pharmacists can seem “more human” and therefore easier with whom to talk, especially for those of us in the “older generation” who grew up revering the doctor.

I have found that generics have been every bit as effective for me, and they are much, much less expensive.  Interestingly enough, the name brands will also drop in price after the generics have been introduced due to marketplace pressures.