Word: generics
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...book," he says, waving around the little blue paperback like a fundamentalist minister displaying his Bible. The bulk of the book is an 85-page series of lists of basic prescription drugs--what they do and how much they cost--with comparative prices of brand name drugs and their generic equivalents...
When a drug first goes on the market it has two names--a generic or official chemical name and a brand name for merchandising purposes. Nembutal, for example, is a well-known sleeping pill made by Abbott Laboratories. Nembutol is its brand name; Sodium pentobarbital, its generic name. Under patent laws Abbott had exclusive rights to the manufacture and sale of Nembutol for 17 years. During that time it could charge whatever the traffic would bear since there was no competition. Abbott also sent out detail men--salesmen that all drug companies hire to promote their brands. "They wait around...
Because of the demand, Abbott charges $16.20 per 1000 capsules wholesale for Nembutol. In his book, Burack lists 15 other reliable companies that make the generic equiva- lent--all but one of them for less than half the price, seven of them for less than one-third the price and one for just...
Most druggists do not carry these generic equivalents. As a pharmacist in the Square said, "No one asks for them. So why should we stock them?" But the generics can be bought, mainly at larger drug stores in Boston...
Nembuol is really a moderate example of these price inequities. Medicate. a brand name adrenal steroid, sells for $170.00 per 1000, yet a generic equivalent can be bought from any of 12 reliable companies for less than $12.00. One of them sells it for $7.95. Peptids are potassium penicillin G tablets sold by Squibb for $6.72 per 100. but 17 firms sell pen G for $2.00 or less. And that is one generic equivalent that most druggists stock. Colace, an anti-constipation drug made by Mead Johnson, sells for $45.79 per 1000. But eight firms sell the generic, dioctyl sodium...