Generics/General

Austria could save Euros 256 million by using more generics

Generics/General | Posted 07/09/2012

A recent study by IMS Health Austria (IMS) revealed that in Austria healthcare payers could have saved more than a quarter billion Euros during 2011 if physicians would have prescribed more generics to their patients.

Coupons help Big Pharma to fend off generics

Generics/General | Posted 07/09/2012

Pfizer’s success at using co-pay coupons to prevent patients switching from brand-name products to generics is encouraging other pharmaceutical giants to follow suit.

Canada grapples with drugs costs

Generics/General | Posted 10/08/2012

Government report calls for the widening of the current scheme for brand-name medicines to include generics.

UK spending on brand-name drugs predicted to reduce

Generics/General | Posted 06/07/2012

Spending by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is under control according to a new report, and in fact spending on brand-name medicines is expected to reduce in real terms and as a proportion of the UK healthcare budget over the next three years.

Generics have their feet under the table in Malaysia

Generics/General | Posted 06/07/2012

Generics manufacturing, prescribing and sales are becoming firmly part of the scene in Malaysia.

Generics companies turn to ‘third tier’ countries

Generics/General | Posted 06/07/2012

With pharmaceutical growth in the doldrums in the west, and China and India are becoming increasingly confident, attention is turning to countries such as Indonesia and Turkey.

Is the pharmaceutical industry on the verge of as big a change as we have seen?

Generics/General | Posted 29/06/2012

‘The old order changeth, yielding place to new’ [1]

For many years the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) negotiations have been criticised as being overly protective of the rights of large pharmaceutical companies. ‘It is unacceptable to threaten developing countries aiming to provide medicines to their populations, and disregarding international commitments to ensure access to medicines,’ ran a Médecins sans Frontières statement in 2010. ‘The US is using its trade laws to bully developing countries into applying arbitrary pharmaceutical industry requests at the expense of millions of people who depend on generic medicines in developing countries.’

Which antiplatelet agent? The debate intensifies

Generics/General | Posted 08/06/2012

Plavix (clopidogrel) has been a blockbuster drug. The lower cost of generic clopidogrel, available for the first time since 17 May 2012 [1], is intensifying debate among cardiologists over how to make sure patients get optimal benefit from any blood-thinning treatment.

China follows the Indian and Thai route to affordable drugs

Generics/General | Posted 22/06/2012

China announced measures for the Compulsory Licensing for Patent Implementation in a statement on 1 May 2012. The country is saying that it intends to become a generics producer for the domestic and possibly the international market.

Generics sustainability to be investigated by UK DoH and industry

Generics/General | Posted 25/05/2012

The British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) and the UK Department of Health (DoH) have agreed to work together to investigate potential challenges to the sustainability of the generics industry in the UK.