2010-10-06, 01:10 PM
After the patent expires, the marketing research firm can then use its already existent production capacity to create an authorized generic and sell that at quantity and at lower cost than a generic company can due to no further investment needed on production capital. Is there something wrong with this? It's not like the company completely loses control of their own drug before/during/after the 180 day exclusivity period, and the much lower prices due to competition from already available production facilities versus other generic companies having to provide evidence of bioequivalency sounds like a win for the pharmaceutical company, FDA, and consumers alike.
Hope I didn't miss anything there.
The problem with Vioxx was partly the pharmaceutical companies, but also a fault on the part of not enough people tested. It was only with independent research firms years later that confirmed the increase in risk of cardiovascular complications on a scale that an FDA approved trial could not and cannot reach in limited production scenarios with unverified drugs. Unfortunately, problems like these exist only because the cost of actually doing mass testing far outweighs the benefits.
Hope I didn't miss anything there.
The problem with Vioxx was partly the pharmaceutical companies, but also a fault on the part of not enough people tested. It was only with independent research firms years later that confirmed the increase in risk of cardiovascular complications on a scale that an FDA approved trial could not and cannot reach in limited production scenarios with unverified drugs. Unfortunately, problems like these exist only because the cost of actually doing mass testing far outweighs the benefits.