Work Place Stress

Drug companies earn “Big Bucks” from their TV
commercials. It is estimated that drug companies
spend 5billion dollars a year on advertisements.

To generate the maximum revenue from commercials,
only “brand name” drugs are promoted.These drugs
are patented so no other company can market them,
thus the company owning the patent can charge high
prices. After seven years the patent will expire, at
which ime the company add an insignificant ingredient
and reapply for another patent for the so called “new
and improved drug”. There is public pressure to force
the drug companies to prove that the “new and
improved drug” actually has significant benefits over
the previous version before patenting.

All drugs have the same basic chemical make up,
commonly referred to as the generic formula.
Drug companies make brand name drugs by adding
other ingredients to the generic formula and
patenting the new drug as a brand name drug,
charging more to the consumer. Many health i
nsurance plans list both the generic and the brand
name for the same drug: however the use of the
generic is preferred due to the lower cost.

In 2007 Schering-Plough paid 90 million dollars to drug
manufactures to delay production of a generic version
of a blood pressure medication. When taken to court,
the drug company was able to justify this cost by a
loophole in the law.

Drugs companies aren’t taking lightly this
encroachment on their pricing power control The
newest tactic is to combine 2 commonly used drugs
into one pill, thus avoiding the generic formula. You
can still buy each separate drug and take each pill
separately. The drug company is counting on the
convenience of dealing with only one instead of two
separate drugs, as today’s modern person is all about
convenience even if it cost more.