Do manufacturers of brand-name drugs engage in price competition?
Joel Lexchin Joel Lexchin is Associate Professor at the School of Health Policy and Management, York University, is with the Emergency Department, University Health Network, and is Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont. Correspondence to: Dr. Joel Lexchin, 121 Walmer Rd., Toronto ON M5R 2X8; fax 416-736-5227; joel.lexchin{at}utoronto.ca’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–> or jlexchin{at}yorku.ca’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–> Most new drugs that reach the market do not offer any significant therapeutic gain over existing products.1,2 Critics of the pharmaceutical industry have argued that these “me-too” drugs are a needless waste of resources. It can take hundreds of millions of dollars to develop them and many more millions to promote them. One justification offered for having these me-too drugs is that they create price competition within their therapeutic class. Lee3 and DiMasi4 compared prices of first-in-class drugs in the Unite
