“If such information campaigns don’t work, the last step is to launch their own generics company, like Novartis did when they started Sandoz, which makes and markets only generic drugs,” Gajaria said.
Sujay Shetty, associate director, pharmaceuticals and life sciences practice at the audit and consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that the value proposition and therapeutic equivalence offered by generics present a compelling case, capable of withstanding such information campaigns by innovator companies.
This, he said is especially true in the case of developed countries, where health-care expenses are becoming a significant cost burden to governments.
“Normally, generics counter such campaigns by lobbying through industry associations to influence policymakers to encourage generics as a means to contain the ballooning health care costs, especially in developed countries like the US, the UK and Germany,” Shetty said.
The outlook in New Zealand is looking good for India’s firms though.
“Over coming months, a number of very widely used medicines will be changing to generic brands through Pharmac’s tender. These include paracetamol and omeprazole. Changes will affect about half a million long-term users— nearly one in every eight New Zealanders, said Pharmac’s Moodie. “As medicines come off-patent, Pharmac is always keen to promote competition among pharmaceutical suppliers to encourage lower prices,”Moodie added.