2 ms·

how do they get doctors to prescribe the patented versions if they aren't better?

• mattmcknight 7y ago
  Sometimes they pay other companies not to make the unpatented drug: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/mergers-competition/pay-delay https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/mergers-comp... More tricks here: https://hbr.org/2017/04/how-pharma-companies-game-the-system-to-keep-drugs-expensive https://hbr.org/2017/04/how-pharma-companies-game-the-system...
• kyokpae 7y ago
  Sales reps bribe doctors, plain and simple. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pg7ez9/pharma-reps-are-basically-bribing-your-doctor-study-confirms https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pg7ez9/pharma-reps-are-ba...
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• nabla9 7y ago
  If there is once choice, doctors prescribe it. If there are two or more very similar choices, doctors prescribe one or the other. Adding competition decreases price, sometimes there may slight differences in side effects. May not be worth of the research itself, but getting into market justifies it. Example: Great discovery: PDE5 inhibitor helps with erectile dysfunction. Product: sildenafil (Viagra). After the mechanism was invented, tadalafil (Cialis), and vardenafil (Levitra) were pushed into market and FDA approved. There are roughly different 10 PDE5 inhibitors and the market is saturated.
• dreamcompiler 7y ago
  Drug salespeople constantly cajole doctors to prescribe one drug over the other using soft bribes like prizes, kickbacks, junkets, etc. Doctors have very limited time to do research and prescribe mostly on the basis of what sales people recommend and what patients ask for (which itself comes from drug advertisements). The "betterness" of a drug has very little to do with what doctors prescribe. This phenomenon is quite well-documented so I won't cite sources here.