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Innovative Drugs Deserve Innovative Marketing
Posted: May 2, 2005According to an article in today's Wall Street Journal, "Pfizer Inc., the maker of Lipitor, blames the German health ministry for a significant drop in sales..." (See "German Curbs On Drug Costs Rile Big Brands.")"The German reimbursement system rewards imitation and penalizes innovation," says GlaxoSmithKline's CEO, Jean-Pierre Garnier.
Philip Burchard, the head of AstraZeneca PLC's business in Germany said: "Basically, this methodology puts you in the same bucket with generics and says, 'You're not better than any generics.' "
Are all brand drugs innovative? Are they all better than generics? What constitutes innovation? If there is evidence that a drug is truly innovative, then shouldn't the marketing also be innovative?