Slashdot Mirror
Judge Rules Drug Maker Cannot Halt Sales of Alzheimer's Medicine
HughPickens.com writes Andrew Pollack reports at the NYT that a federal judge has blocked an attempt by the drug company Actavis to halt sales of an older form of its Alzheimer's disease drug Namenda in favor of a newer version with a longer patent life after New York's attorney general filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing the drug company of forcing patients to switch to the newer version of the widely used medicine to hinder competition from generic manufacturers. "Today's decision prevents Actavis from pursuing its scheme to block competition and maintain its high drug prices," says Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general. "Our lawsuit against Actavis sends a clear message: Drug companies cannot illegally prioritize profits over patients."
The case involves a practice called product hopping where brand name manufacturers make a slight alteration to their prescription drug (PDF) and engage in marketing efforts to shift consumers from the old version to the new to insulate the drug company from generic competition for several years. For its part Actavis argued that an injunction would be "unprecedented and extraordinary" and would cause the company "great financial harm, including unnecessary manufacturing and marketing costs." Namenda has been a big seller. In the last fiscal year, the drug generated $1.5 billion in sales. The drug costs about $300 a month.
The case involves a practice called product hopping where brand name manufacturers make a slight alteration to their prescription drug (PDF) and engage in marketing efforts to shift consumers from the old version to the new to insulate the drug company from generic competition for several years. For its part Actavis argued that an injunction would be "unprecedented and extraordinary" and would cause the company "great financial harm, including unnecessary manufacturing and marketing costs." Namenda has been a big seller. In the last fiscal year, the drug generated $1.5 billion in sales. The drug costs about $300 a month.
Stopping to make the original drug should cause immediate expiration of its patent. A patent is a government-created monopoly to encourage people to make the stuff. Clearly, if the company won't make it, there's no need for the patent. Requiring a company to make something they don't want to make is absurd; instead, just let others make it. And if they raise the prices substantially, perhaps require patent licensing in those cases (just as we did for music).
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
Then make it so if a company abandons the product the patent becomes invalid.
When you cant win, ad hominem.
This reminds me of a situation my wife dealt with a few years back. She was on a pain medication that was really the only one she had found that provided the relief she needed to get through the day. But it suddenly stopped being sold or prescribed one day.
That day, the FDA banned the drug. It cited a study that found that the drug was linked with something bad, I think maybe suicidal thoughts.
But then she found that the study was produced by the company that made the brand name version of the drug, which had competition by generics by that point.
Hmm.
Also, the brand name company had just created a new similar pain medication that had new patent protections. The FDA ruling effectively killed the competition of this new drug.
Hmm.
Mind you, that new drug is ineffective for my wife's pain. Also, the study was done over a very short period of time, had a weak sample size, and when you look at its bias, there's no way that study would have made it into a real medical journal. But would the FDA accept it (presumably along with a check with lots of pretty zeroes)? Absolutely.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.