I often dither for confidentiality reasons when I'm going to write about a topic concerning the medical field. I've written about them as general issues. Today I'll write about generic drugs.
At first, I'll explain generic drugs. When a pharmaceutical company successfully develops a new medicine, it is given a patent of the medicine and other companies can't make it for the term of the patent. It costs a lot to create a new profitable medicine, so this issuance of a patent is natural. After the patent ends, other companies get to be allowed to produce a generic copy. These patent-ceased generic copies are called generic drugs. In general, the price of generic drugs is far lower than that of the original one.
Original drugs have to get through lots of strict tests before getting a patent and the results of those tests ensure the safety and efficacy of the drug. However, newly-made generic copies aren't required to be tested. The generic companies just say it's the same as the original ones, but I feel it's wrong and there's something different between them on my empirical basis. I have not used them for my patients, but now the number of patients who want generic drugs has increased. Is it due to economic stagnation?
I'm afraid that if the sales of the original drugs goes down, the development fee for new drugs would be cut in high-profile companies.
(Vocabulary)
dither 躊躇(ちゅうちょ)する, 迷う
for confidentiality reasons 守秘義務上の理由で
confidentiality 守秘義務
generic (製品などが) (登録)商標のない, ノーブランドの, ジェネリックの
pharmaceutical company 製薬会社
issuance of a patent 特許の発行
ensure the safety and efficacy 安全性および有効性を保障する
on an empirical basis 経験的に
empirical 経験による, 実証的な
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