Economist defends generic substitution practices in UK
Generic substitution has nothing to do with attacking or protecting patent rights and may even protect the value of patents, argues the author of an article published in this month’s Economic
Affairs (2006;26[3]:33).
Andrew Lilico, an economist at Europe Economics, suggests that, since
off-patent medicines are usually inexpensive and there is probably a
fairly stable portion of total expenditure that the state will be willing
to dedicate to medicines, generic substitution allows a higher proportion
of state resources to be spent on innovative, patented medicines.
He says: “The intention of a patent is not to vest a monopolistic
position for the patent-holder even after the patent expires. If the
concern is that patents are not long enough, that is a debate to be held
in its own terms, not by opposing competition after the patent term has
ended.”
The September issue of Economic Affairs is dedicated to pharmaceuticals
and government policy. A series of six articles covers issues relating
to the influence of consumer preference on health care provision, the
effects of government funding policy on innovation and equity of consumer
access to medicines, direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals,
and the appropriateness of pharmaceutical industry markets. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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