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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: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday August 24 2016, @01:20AM
It's not a good analogy. Just as some people can distinguish Coke and Pepsi in a double-blind taste test, I imagine that some people would be able to similarly distinguish between Cheerios and Walmart-os in a double blind test.
Meh. The example's not the best, but yours is perhaps better. You ever heard of the "Pepsi Challenge"? Study after study has shown that the number of people who think they can distinguish Coke and Pepsi is many times the number who actually can.
And if you try a triangle test (3 unknown sodas, 2 identical), approximately 1/3 will be able to correctly "identify" which two are the same (note here we're not even requiring them to correctly identify which is Coke and which is Pepsi). And obviously note that chance in such a test is 1/3, so it's basically random guessing. You do get results somewhat above chance going head-to-head (only two choices) in terms of correct identification, but then if you try any "funny business" like putting sodas in the wrong cans, dedicated Coke drinkers will swoon and praise the Pepsi out of a Coke can, even claiming to taste flavors they claimed were only in their preferred cola. (In general, those declaring "brand loyalty" or "strong preferences" basically come up no better on such tests than other people.)
My favorite are of course the fMRI studies, though. You taste the sodas blind, and preferences are split (though usually Pepsi comes out ahead). But you tell people what they are tasting, and they prefer the Coke by a wide margin -- and a different part of their brain lights up when they do so. Interestingly, when people have brain damage in that area, they don't seem to succumb to brand loyalty effects as much.
Point being -- while I agree that this analogy about Cheerios isn't the best here, placebo effects caused by brand loyalty are very strong and difficult to get around. In situations dealing with medical treatment, chances are that these placebo effects are quite strong for those convinced that the generic drug is the inferior "Pepsi" version.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @03:07AM
Personally, I don't like pepsi or coke, but I can tell the difference. Maybe the Australian variants are more different than the USA ones.
(Coke here does have sugar instead of HFCS, There may be other differences.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 24 2016, @01:48PM
Even if the US, the two taste different. Coke is more carbonated and Pepsi is sweeter.