Word: nembutol
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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...
...Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR), which looks very official. But, as Burack points out, PDR is an advertising vehicle--a fact most physicians don't know. The 1966 rate was $115 per column inch, so the gross value of the space that year was over $1,725,000. Nembutol is listed there, like the other brand names, and Abbott paid well for the privilege. In his book, Burack calls PDR "probably the shrewdest and most effective means by which the pharmaceutical corporations perpetuate their hold over doctors and patients...
After the 17 years were up Abbott could keep its brand name and go on advertising in medical journals and in PDR, but now other companies can sell sodium pentobarbital too. Still, during those 17 years of monopoly power, Abbott was able to fix the name Nembutol very well in the heads of doctors and patients. Patients still ask for it and doctors prescribe it. Who would ask his doctor for sodium pentobarbital, even though it's the same thing chemically? That is the evidence of how well the public is propagandized by the drug concerns, which spend $600 million...
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...
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