Sick of shelling out big bucks for your Lipitor and other brand-name drugs? Well, it doesn’t appear that you’ll need to do it for a whole lot longer. But you will have to memorize the actual medical name of your medicine rather than such catchy brand names as Zyprexa, Plavix, and Singulair.

They're just a few of the brand-name drugs that will go on the market in a cheaper, generic form in the next two years.

Why? Because the patents on these and other brands will run out and allow for other companies to offer those generics at lower prices since the patent royalties and marketing costs will disappear, creating a boon for consumers and a headache for Big Pharma.Continue reading...

We may be witnessing a slowly developing economic recovery, but that's little consolation to the pharmaceutical industry. This year, according to the New York Times, drug companies will see annual sales of almost $50 billion evaporate. Why? Because the patents for more than 10 major drug brands will expire.

It's a reality that has lingered for years. A drug company invests huge amounts of money in R&D and finally wins approval to bring a drug to market under a brand name.

But that drug can only be protected by a patent for a certain number of years; when the patent expires, generic versions of the drug can be sold, almost always at a cheaper price. Take Tylenol, for example, one of the brand names for acetaminophen. Continue reading...

The activity of brands in China lately is something akin to the California Gold Rush of the 1840s and 1850s. It seems like every major brand is scrambling to get a piece of the world's most robust economy.

China's consumer population is a tantalizing market for virtually every industry. China is already challenging America's Silicon Valley for technology supremacy. Fashion and luxury brands are flocking to the country, revving up operations and opening new stores.

In just the past few weeks, we've reported on Apple, Burberry, GM, Hermes, and Pabst beer making new inroads into mainland China.

Add drug companies to that list. Merck is forming a joint venture to market its vaccines in China.Continue reading...

Did you know there is a Center for Digital Democracy? And that yesterday the CDD asked the Food and Drug Administration to enforce its rules regarding drug marketing, especially in the social media arena?

The CDD's argument: if a pharmaceutical company cannot sufficiently represent the dangers and risks of a particular drug in 140 characters or less (which is impossible), they shouldn’t be able to tweet about it.

"Current FDA guidance on the presentation of risk information should not be compromised to the detriment of public health in favor of accommodating recent developments in online product promotion," the CDD wrote in its letter to the FDA.

Big Pharma was quick to respond that FDA regulations currently make no distinction between print and digital content. "That's akin to using standards created for horse and buggies to regulate automobiles," commented Jeffrey Francer, assistant general counsel for the US drug industry lobby group, PhRMA.Continue reading...