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It has the same active ingredient, so it should work the same, but if someone says 'I want Cheerios, not Walmart-os', then why should they not get what they're paying for? (David Maris, pharmaceuticals analyst at Wells Fargo, as quoted in Staying Power, David Crow, Financial Times [Log in required], Aug 22.
Discovering a drug and bringing it to market can take more than 10 years and costs on average $2.6bn per medicine. Typically around five to seven years after, the exclusive rights on the discovery expire, and generic copycat versions quickly flood the market. Prices are slashed to super-cheap, and then for all time and eternity, society benefits greatly. Or, in the words of Pfizer's CEO Ian Read during an investor call: "The price of medicines drop significantly once the patent expires... Today, about nine out of ten prescriptions in the US offer generic drugs, which lead to significantly reduced costs in the healthcare system."
A recent Financial Times analysis doesn't completely agree though. Prices of branded medicines aren't slashed once the patent expires. They actually often sharply increase.
Before companies get to that phase however, a whole slew of other tactics have been used to maintain exclusivity. Many make small changes to a drug, then renew the patent. This is known as evergreening. Others "pay for delay" -- offering financial incentives to the generics producers to bring their alternatives to market more slowly. And once the generics get to market, pharma companies change tactics by attempting to stop patients, doctors and pharmacists from switching.
The end result is price differences between generics and brand medicines which are somewhat strange for a free market: Wellbutrin (bupropion, 150 mg) [Valeant]: $36 per pill versus $0.46 for the generic [bupropion]; Lipitor (atorvastatin 20mg) [Pfizer] 10.49 versus 0.13, Abmien (zolpidem 5mg) [Sanofi] 15.52 versus 0.02, Prozac (fluoxetine 20mg) [Eli Lilly] 11.39 versus 0.03, Xanax (alprazolam 1mg) [Pfizer] 8.14 versus 0.05 and Sarafem (fluoxetine 20mg) [Allergan] $15.98 versus $0.03 per pill.
There must be lot of people who prefer Cheerios over Walmart-os.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 23 2016, @11:01PM
Same ingredients but different formula can make a big difference. Case in point: Crystal Light sells a caffeinated strawberry drink mix that stains the hell out of a porcelain cup. Roundy's supermarkets sells an imitation Crystal Light caffeinated strawberry drink mix with the same ingredients, and not only does the generic imitation not leave stains, it acts as a stain remover. You can guess why I stopped buying Crystal Light.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 23 2016, @11:31PM
This poster is not messing when they talk about crystal light. I would not be surprised to find out it is the same ink they use for sharpies. It does not come out.
I gave up on most diet sorts of drinks anyway. They just make me more hungry which negates the effect I am after... :(
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @12:12AM
The clone of CL isn't necessarily intended to be chemically identical. I suspect the (alleged) clone uses a different kind of food-coloring, which is less likely to stain your particular stuff.
Now if the box or company claimed it to be chemically identical, that's a different matter. But it doesn't.
Apples to strawberries.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Wednesday August 24 2016, @12:26AM
(Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Wednesday August 24 2016, @02:14AM
I know I can't rule out the placebo effect, but the generic version of Claritin doesn't seem as effective for me as the brand name version.
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
(Score: 2) by curunir_wolf on Wednesday August 24 2016, @03:02AM
Works fine for me. But, I'm a chemist. So ... some placebo effect?
I am a crackpot
(Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday August 24 2016, @02:36PM
Possibly, or possibly there's something that's different about the particular generics involved versus name brand.
Unfortunately, they aren't necessarily completely the same. They're supposed to be, but they aren't always exactly the same.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @04:16PM
Dudes... dudes... dudes...
it is all placebo
we are all hypnotised
this one makes you bigger
that one makes you smaller
all of it, the power of suggestion
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @01:23AM
Clearly the food chemists who formulated Roundy's drink mix are geniuses who managed to invent a nutritious vitamin-fortified bleaching agent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @06:22AM
Sounds like they left the mordant out of their formula.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday August 24 2016, @02:11AM
Same with drugs. The filler used can vastly affect shelf life and how well it's absorbed. There's been good research on this with regard to thyroid preparations; dunno about other stuff, but that was enough to convince me.
And I'd worry about what the generic drink mix was doing to my teeth.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.