Top 10 generics makers by 2012 revenue

FiercePharma | Carly Helfand

The Hatch-Waxman Act shook up the generic drugs business in 1984, and almost 30 years later, it's safe to say the law had its desired effect. About 84% of the 4 billion prescriptions written each year are for generic drugs, saving patients and government programs billions of dollars a year. In other words, generic drugs are big business. And with a slew of blockbuster brands now off patent, it's a big business with growing pains.

As companies bulked up to take on copies of the world's best-selling drugs, a wave of mergers has swept the industry. Many credit Actavis ($ACT) CEO Paul Bisaro with starting that trend; then the Watson CEO, his 2012 takeover of Actavis sent a clear message of "go big or go home" reverberating throughout the generics business. Actavis hasn't stopped scouting for deals, and many of its peers have followed suit.

1M fake Xanax pills intercepted on their way to Egypt from China

Swiss authorities seized more than 1 million fake Pfizer Inc. Xanax anti-anxiety pills at Zurich airport, part of a wider crackdown on counterfeit medicines posing a public-health threat. Four crates weighing more than 400 kilograms (880 pounds) were intercepted while in transit from China to Egypt and ordered to be destroyed after tests determined the pills contained no active ingredients, Bern-based Swissmedic, the country’s drug regulator, said in a statement last week. 

Governments are fighting to safeguard the distribution of legitimate drugs and crack down on counterfeit products. Systematic checks of medical shipments are carried out every year, and imports of bogus medicines have been declining in Switzerland, Swissmedic said in June. Counterfeit drugs generated an estimated $75 billion in revenue in 2010, according to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. 

“I’m angry,” Erik Gordon, a professor of law and business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, wrote in e-mailed comments. “When criminals counterfeit Hermes scarves, money is stolen. When they counterfeit pills, they kill people.” Each year more than 100,000 people around the world may die from substandard and counterfeit medications, according to an estimate by Amir Attaran, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa, and Roger Bate, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute. 

The fake Xanax couldn’t be recognized as counterfeit at first glance, said Swissmedic, whose official name is the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products. The regulator said it informed authorities abroad of the discovery, in particular in China and Egypt. No patients in Switzerland will be affected, it said. 

The Swiss regulator said in June that it had already seized about 90 shipments this year representing a high-potential health risk. It also has ordered the shutdown of Internet websites trading drugs illegally.

Μήλον της έριδας τα ΜΗΣΥΦΑ για σούπερ μάρκετ και φαρμακοποιούς- Τι λένε οι δύο πλευρές

 

Πηγή:www.reporter.gr 

Mετά τις βιταμίνες και τα συμπληρώματα διατροφής που παίρνουν το δρόμο για την πώλησή τους από τα σούπερ μάρκετ, η λίστα με τα μη συνταγογραφούμενα φάρμακα διευρύνεται με στόχο επιπλέον έσοδα της τάξεως των 100 εκατ. ευρώ. Σύμφωνα με πληροφορίες, η σχετική ρύθμιση θα θεσπιστεί νομοθετικά πολύ νωρίτερα από τα τέλη του έτους, ίσως ακόμη και μέσα στο μήνα καθώς έχουν πολλαπλασιαστεί οι πιέσεις της τρόικας προς αυτήν τη κατεύθυνση.