MEDICINE

ONCE a drug is approved by the FDA , it needs to enter the manufacturing process . Going from small-scale to large-scale manufacturing , however , is a major undertaking . In many cases , companies must build a new manufacturing facility or reconstruct an old one because the manufacturing process is different from drug to drug .

Patent Pending Depending on a number of considerations , a company may apply for and be granted a patent for their newly approved drug or the process of producing the drug , granting exclusivity rights for approximately 20 years .

Patent protection enables the owner of the patent to recover the costs of research and development through high profit margins for the branded drug . When the patent protection for the drug expires , a generic drug can then be developed and sold by any other company .

Typically , the owner of a branded drug will create a generic version of the drug before the patent expires to gain a head start in the generic drug market .

Marketing a Drug Pharma companies generally employ sales people to market directly and personally to physicians and other healthcare providers , but advertising is also common in healthcare journals as well as through more mainstream media .

16 February 2015