Authorized generic drugs key to defend sales against competing generics - Fitch |
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Published
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Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:57
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MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - Authorized generics are becoming an increasingly important tool for pharmaceutical companies to defend their sales against an early entry of a competitive generic drug, Fitch Ratings said.Authorised generics are typically manufactured by makers of the branded drug itself, and the importance of these drugs has increased following US generic drug makers' aggressive strategy to copy branded drugs with years of patent protection left.Currently, prescriptions for a branded drug in the US can drop 90 pct within the first year of the generic drug entry, with considerable impact on the profits of the copied product. For blockbuster drugs (with annual sales above 1 bln usd), such as Novartis's hypertension drug Lotrel, an early generic entry can therefore have a noticeable impact on a pharmaceutical company's cash flow generation.Thus, the announcement by Novartis that it will immediately launch its own generic version of Lotrel in the US through its Sandoz division is not a surprising defensive action, Fitch said.Novartis' announcement was made after a federal court declined the company's request to stop Teva Pharmaceuticals from resuming shipments of generic copies of Lotrel.TFN.newsdesk@thomson.comjroCOPYRIGHTCopyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.
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