Americans struggling to pay for brand name drugs were saved by the introduction of generics throughout the years. However, despite being thankful for these savings, it?s often unclear how such a price disparity exists between a branded drug and its generic counterpart.
The resource featured alongside this post attempts to clear up said disparity. Of the information listed, one of the most important factors is the duration of the patent process. Patenting a drug is a complicated and expensive process that is often dragged out to the point of failure. Companies spend billions of dollars researching drugs to develop, but rarely will these drugs ever grace pharmacy shelves. Those that do require patent protection, which gives these companies the ability to charge such high prices. These prices are meant to help these organizations regain the money they invested in developing these drugs. Of course without the advancements made in some of this research, Americans would be much worse off despite these outrageous prices. The United States Government would come to realize this as well, though. Which is why in 1984, the passing of the Hatch-Waxman Act allowed for generic drugs to compete with their brand name counterparts after a specified duration of time. This act allowed for generics to disregard the pre-clinical and clinical trials branded drugs had to go through in order to be sold. Eliminating these expensive and time-consuming trials allowed for generics to enter the market ...