Generic Pharmaceutical Industry in Pakistan (Part II) – Blog Post by Asrar Qureshi
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Continued
from previous……
When I started working in
Pharma in 1975, MNCs were supreme. They had the products, the knowledge, the
resources, the prestige and eventually, the business. I remember we had some
target, but we never worried about it, for two reasons. One, the targets were
small, and the growth expectation used to be modest; two, the targets were achieved
without any fuss. In 1975, the generic scheme introduced by the then Health
Minister late Sheikh Rasheed, was the subject of universal criticism. The
companies never liked it and the doctors also did not accept it because it led
to easy switching of prescriptions. The change in policy was not yet talked
about but the existing policy was favorite punching bag.
Please note that the MNCs were not afraid of losing
business to Local Pharma. There were few generics offered by Local Pharma. I
believe the MNCs thought about the future and apprehended that the continuation
of generic policy will encourage growth of Local Pharma in the next few years.
Anyway, the generic policy died earlier than was expected.
In April 1976, new Drug Act was passed which brought the brands back.
Drug Act 1976 upheld the BRANDS, much to the
satisfaction of MNCs. For the next about ten years, Brands and MNCs were happy
together. In 1980s, Local Pharma started with ‘Branded Generics’. Prior to this,
Local Pharma produced generics of very old molecules, mostly by generic names.
Branded generic was a new concept. It was a generic product but branded like a
brand should be. Marketing and Promotion was to establish the ‘Brand’. This was
successfully done by some companies. In my view, it was the first major milestone
among the many milestones which generic industry later achieved. Up to this
time, the branded generics were introduced for the innovator brands which were available
in the market for a long time.
I would like to divide the development of generic industry
in three phases.
Phase I. Introduction
of generics of old, established innovator brands
This was early 1980s. Branded generics for old,
established brands were introduced. Examples were generics of Velosef
(cephradine), Voltaren (diclofenac sodium), Vibramycin (doxycycline), (hyoscine
compound), Flagyl (metronidazole), Brufen (ibuprofen), and few others. These
brands were huge in volume and the branded generics anticipated that even a
tiny share would be good for them.
Two factors were worth noting.
One, branded generics attacked large brands like a
pack of wolves. They gnawed at it from various sides and tore away small pieces.
Initially, the big brand took it lightly. They thought they were beyond any kind
of serious attack. When they realized the seriousness of situation, they could
not do much about it. The damage had set in. Big brands did not die because the
force of branded generics pushed the market boundaries to increase the overall
size of market. This is also debatable to say that branded generics stalled the
growth of innovator brands. Innovator brands would never have been able to
expand the market alone.
Two, Branded generics were introduced for the
innovator brands which were easy-to-sell and had short term treatment. It was the
strategy of hit and run. Many of these did not even need prescription to sell.
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