Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 56
Promotion ensures that most of us will recognise the drug by its brand name -in
this case 'Valium'.
A company that develops a new drug is granted monopoly rights over its
production, import and sale in countries that recognise patents - in many for up
to 20 years. The effective life of patents may in fact be only half as long by the
time a new drug is fully tested and ready for sale. But while manufacturers enjoy
this monopoly their new products can sell at high prices. Once the patent expires
(or before that in countries that do not recognise patents) the drug can be copied
by anyone with the technical know-how to produce it. So non-research-based
companies can step in and market the drug either under its generic name or their
own brand.
Keeping to the example of diazepam, this is now off patent and sold in Britain
both under its generic name and half a dozen brand names, including Valium,
the trademark of its originators, Roche. (l3) Two characteristics distinguish the
brand name product from the generic. Valium is well known, diazepam less so,
and the trade price of Valium to the National Health Service is over twice the
price of the generic. " 4| The differences can be greater. A comparison of prices
of thirteen top-selling brands and their generic equivalents on the British market
in 1979 revealed that the generics cost only two-thirds to one- tenth of the price
of the brand-name products.