Of the more than 1,600 generic approved drugs, over SEVEN HUNDRED are not on the market!

[thewayne]

43%. Not for sale. Just being sat on. Which means a lot of drugs have ZERO COMPETITION and nothing forcing them to lower prices through active competition. There are several reasons for this, but I suspect regardless of what is said that the biggie is to simply keep prices high as long as possible on the newer and patented drugs in order to make as much profit as possible.

Cynical much? As a matter of fact, yes.

Now, I can respect that it costs a tremendous amount of money to develop a drug, test it, and go through the approval process. And not all drugs survive testing or approval, or may have a flaw come through after approval that results in the drug being taken off the market (can you say 'thalidomide'?). So not only do profits have to recoup the costs of THAT drug, they have to recoup FAILED drug costs AND fund new development AND provide some profits.

But there's one flaw in this little scenario: a lot of this development work is being done through the National Institutes of Health and other Federal research programs, paid for by tax dollars of citizens of the USA. So their development costs are purely negligible: they're buying a license that's no where near the development costs that the government paid.

One example of some of the shenanigans pulled: asthma rescue inhalers, commonly known as albuterol inhalers. They were so utterly generic that if they weren't free, they were $5. Long out of patent, so anyone can make them, but they're not going to make a huge amount of profit on them.

WELL, WE CAN'T HAVE THAT! Our MBAs say we gotta make as much profit as possible for our shareholders! That's MBA School 101! So they go to the EPA and FDA and say 'Oh noes! Those nasty rescue inhalers are so old that they're using CFCs and destroying the ozone layer! What are the kittehs gonna do! No can haz burgers! But we haz NEW inhaler that haz NO Nasty CFCs! We just need to be granted a patent and exclusive licensing rights and a ban on the old inhalers, sign here please.'

And inhalers, which are critical for some people, are now $30. I have one in my pocket, one on my bedside table, and one in my computer bag. While I don't have the deadly severe form of asthma, it's kinda important for my continued normally reasonably good health.

Well, now we're seeing the ultimate expression. Buy the patent and licensing for the generic while you also hold a nigh identical drug, and just sit on the generic! Ensure that you cannot have a competitor.

Pretty damn slick, and hopefully they will be damned in their own personal hell hereafter.

With a little luck the next administration will do something about this shit.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/drug-companies-are-sitting-on-generics-43-of-recently-approved-arent-for-sale/

Comments

[silveradept]

The whole point of the generic version is so that when the patent runs out on something, it becomes affordable rather than having to pray that your insurer will cover the cost of the medication. That there are nearly half of the possible generics available but not actually being sold suggests there should be another investigation to see whether or not the generic manufacturers and/or the brand companies are engaging in behaviors that require trust-busting to defeat.

So, yeah, maybe in the next administration, once we've thrown out the people who are responsible for this terrible situation.

[thewayne]

So many drugs are kept expensive by a minor tweak getting made when the patent is close to expiring, a new patent is issued for fundamentally the same drug, then the previous drug being withdrawn from the market, never to be seen again.  Myself, I'm fairly confident that they have Tweak B in-hand when Base Drug A is designed and finished testing and approval, they just hold on to it until later.  Round and round she goes....

[silveradept]

Likely, but what should happen is that when variation A falls out of patent, it becomes a generic quickly, which is then marketed as the cheaper alternative to variation B.

It sounds like there are plenty of those things out that are being actively sat on instead of being allowed to go forward.

[thewayne]

I suspect we're seeing a 'good ol' boy's network' springing up and a lot of 'gentleman's agreements' sliding into place.  "I know your Drug X is coming off patent next year, my Drug Y does the same in two.  I won't poach X if you don't poach Y" sort of thing.  Interlocking directorships are illegal, but if wink and a nod agreements aren't committed to paper, how do you prove illegal non-compete agreements?  Ignoring the fact that the U.S. government hasn't pursued monopoly and anti-trust in ages.

[silveradept]

Yes. Good conspiracies are harder to find and break apart, but if there were serious resources invested in the idea, they might be able to notice the dogs but barking and bring successful threats, even if not actual charges.

[thewayne]

You get caught.  You made $50mil.  You pay a $1mil fine, shed some crocodile tears, and once the cameras are off you laugh your head off.  Nothing happened to the bankers in '08, there's nothing for them to fear right now.

[silveradept]

Fair enough. Would be nice if the rule were "if we catch you doing something like this, all the money you made during the time you were breaking the law is forfeit to the government." And if they can't pay their gross income over that time, their assets get sold to the government until they can. That might discourage some of those expensive decisions.

[thewayne]

IMO, take back the money they made AND a 50% fine.  THAT might give them pause, and throw a prison sentence on top of it.  As far as selling assets, I'd like to start with any houses in the city where the corp HQ is, just to make them spend money to buy new housing.

[silveradept]

Sounds like an idea. Acme maybe something that would give enough pause while they thought, and then a lovely panic when it turns out we meant it.

[devilc]

I wish I had the connections (and the brass) to make a pharmecutical non-profit or B-corp happen.

All the public domain drugs, at a modest profit.
All the orphan drugs made sold/at cost with the profit (above) used to subsidize costs for those who need the help, because some of those drugs will be expensive to license/purchase.

[thewayne]

The world is run by MBAs and the mantra burned into their tiny little brains is 'returns for the stock holders', it's branded there after their souls are removed.  In my ever so humble opinion.