ok,only untill a drug is no longer under a patent can it be made by another pharm company.. ie...generic. When a pharm "rep" goes to hospitals, clinics ect. what do you think they are doing, my wifes best friend is a pharm rep for Abbott labs and this is how it works....every doc that writes a certain amount of scripts for meds from any pharm company gets a "kickback". It's not illegal how it's done. Collectively a hospital writes a certain ammount of scripts, say from abbott labs for instance, if they meet the quota of scripts written, the hospital or clinic gets a percentage of sales...the hospital then distributes a percentage of these funds to all the docs affiliated and of course keep most for the hospital. Generics are the same, although most generics are alot cheaper of course because you have several pharm companies making the drug, as opposed to ONE making it because it's under patent. Now there is competition. When a doc write a script for generic, it's because YOU ask for generic because it's cheaper, a doc will almost always write a script for the name brand stuff even if generics are available, because the hospital makes more money, and in turn so does he. And if you didn't know, a man with a PHD cannot even write a script with out hospital affiliation. If your doc has his own office, by himself, he still has to be affiliated to a hospital in the state, usually one near him for many reasons, to even write a scipt, it's law. So there it is in a nutshell.
