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Big Pharma's patent problems |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Thursday, 07 February 2008 |
 What's bad news for Big Pharma can be good news for your wallet. In 2008 more than 10 top-selling drugs will lose patent protection which means much cheaper generic versions for the consumers. However, the industry
hopes to recoup the losses with authorized generics.
In this very interesting article by Business Week, they highlight that there are few graver financial threats than the
expiration of a patent on a blockbuster drug for a pharmaceutical company.
Exclusivity on the compound flies out the window, and lower-cost generics rush
in. Insurance companies hunting for savings press doctors and patients to
switch. Profits get squeezed. Spread across the industry, the patent problem is
all the more formidable because right now Big Pharma has no certain blockbusters
in its development pipeline to replace lost income.
But what pharmaceutical investors fear can spell good news for people struggling
with expensive drug prices. The Congressional Budget Office pegs the annual
savings from generic drugs in the U.S. alone at $8 billion to $10 billion. On
Feb. 6, the $3 billion-per-year best seller Fosamax, the leading treatment for
osteoporosis, goes off patent.
All this competition will mean the price of alendronate (the generic name for
Fosamax)—currently about $90 per month—should drop by 60% to 70%.
Click here to read about the 10 different drugs that will be going generic in 2008.
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