| NEW MEDICINES
AGAINST GENERICS: FACTS |
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INNOVATIVE MEDICINES RX&D |
GENERIC COPY DRUG MANUFACTURERS |
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| Discovery and Innovation |
The global innovative pharmaceutical industry
is resposible for developing more than 90% of all medicines
and vaccines in the world today. R&D investments in Canada
totalling more than $1 billion in 2001 alone. |
Little investment in the discovery of new medications. |
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| Development risk |
Significant risk, since only three out of 10
new medicines on the market recover this investment. |
Zero risk: Only the most innovative, highly successful
medications are selected for copying. |
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| Development time |
Innovative medicines take up to 15 years of development
and regulatory approval, leaving as little as five years of
effective patent life. |
Approximately 2 to 3 years to copy. |
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| Development cost |
Bringing a new medicine to patients costs on
average $1.3 billion - more than 1,000 times more than what
it costs a generic manufacturer to copy an innovative medicine. |
The average cost to develop a generic copy is
of $1 million. Even so, generics are only 30-40% cheaper than
innovative medicines. |
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| Drug prices |
Strictly regulated by the Patented Medicine Prices
Review Board (PMPRB). The prices of patented medicines in Canada
have, on average, declined over the past decade and remain 5%
below the international median in compared with the U.S., Britain,
France and Sweden. |
Free market prices unrestricted by the PMPRB. |
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