Australian health review : a publication of the Australian Hospital Association
-
India has built a large pharmaceutical industry through an array of measures in support of domestic firms. The absence of product patents enabled Indian companies to become world leading producers of generic versions of patented drugs. ⋯ Key elements of the present shake-up include the return of 'big pharma' companies on a large scale and the emergence of several Indian firms that aim to become fully-fledged research-based multinationals. This article provides a description of the development and structure of the Indian pharmaceutical industry and explores questions and challenges arising from its integration into global markets.
-
This article analyses the impact of the Department of Health and Ageing's brand price premium policy for some products listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The policy, introduced in 1990, allows pharmaceutical companies to charge patients an out-of-pocket expense for post-patent brands of pharmaceuticals. ⋯ This article looks at how the brand price premium policy can be exploited by global pharmaceutical giants to entrench big-name brands in the Australian pharmaceutical market and, in some cases, prevent 'true' competition from generic pharmaceuticals. This is being done through the establishment of 'pseudo-generics' that are sourced from the same factory floor as the original product.
-
This article examines how regulatory agencies' mission to protect and promote public health, enshrined in legislation, has been shaped and limited by commitments to the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry. It is argued that the regulatory state has become largely a 'competition state' which considers its primary role to be the maintenance of industry's competitive position in world markets. ⋯ To legitimise the global harmonisation process in terms of their mission to protect and promote public health, regulators claim that it does not lower safety standards and will accelerate the availability of pharmaceutical innovations to patients who need them. However, evidence is presented to suggest that these legitimising claims are not tenable.
-
There is tension between the need of the pharmaceutical innovator for intellectual property protection and the need of society for equitable and affordable access to innovative drugs. The recent Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement provides a nice illustration of this interplay between patents, pills and politics. This article provides a brief history of patent law as applied to pharmaceuticals, describes how the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme got caught up in AUSFTA negotiations, analyses the clauses that are likely to impact upon the PBS and describes the political process that reviewed and ultimately amended the AUSFTA.