Generic competition

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated:

 

The Daily Mail City Team explain the issues surrounding generic competition

What is it?

There are manufacturers who specialise in challenging patents on some the world's biggest prescription medicines. If you are big pharma firm that has spent hundreds of millions of pounds developing your latest blockbuster, the last thing you need is for the product to succumb to cut-price, copycat competition.

But isn't competition good?

Yes. But the big drug companies argue - with some merit - that they need patent protection to claw back the huge upfront research and development costs. What irks AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithkline, is that generic manufacturers never make any of the heavy investment needed to create breakthrough medicines.

Why does it happen?

A successful patent challenge can hit paydirt, particularly when the generic drug manufacturer is granted a 180-day period exclusivity, which sometimes happens in the US. That allows firms such as Teva, Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's to undercut the branded competition and capture most of the market for that drug.

Why do we care?

AstraZeneca's cholesterol buster Crestor has come under generic attack. But the Anglo-Swedish giant is not alone as 17 of the world's top 20 drugs are under siege from the lawyers.

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