Summary
TOPAMAX(R) brand topiramate generated about $2.2 billion sales annually. The emergence of generic topiramate while a temporary advantage for those who purchase it, takes away $2.2 billion in income from an innovator Pharma Company, Ortho-McNeil-Jansen (J&J), as well as a large number of talented R&D personell who previously worked for OMJ.
Analysis
As a pharmaceutical scientist and pharmacy practitioner I would prefer that we celebrated the availability of a new chemical entity than the emergence of generic copies of a previous innovation. Our current pharmaceutical model favors generic substitution and lower prices at the cost of innovation. The reality is that as each branded pharmaceutical becomes generically available, the resources for innovation, for new drug entities decreases. The argument is made that the innovator has had sufficient time to recoup the expenses of bringing a novel and new chemical entity to the marketplace, and that the population at large reaps the benefits of less expensive versions of that product.
I wonder though, if anyone has ever compared the current to the new model. Would the prices of innovator drug products be less if the innovator had sole ownership of the chemical entity and drug products? Would it all average out, with older drugs being slightly more expensive and newer drug more expensive? Another piece of the model would be to evaluate the effect that the current generic substitution has on innovation. Before generic substitution, many of the current elements of our giant pharmaceutical houses were individual companies, working to bring new compounds to the clinic. The giant multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, GSK, and J&J have been created from a need to replenish pipelines when a major income producing product goes off patent.
I question iof this is really good for our polpulation. The mergers and loss of income result in downsizing talented professionals and reducing the numbers of scientists involved in bringing new products to the market. From where will the next generations of drugs for treating pain, infection, endocrine, cardiovascular and CNS disorders come? One very unlikely source is the vast number of generic companies that have evolved.
