"Braneric" Competition

For years, brand and generics companies have competed in virtually distinct worlds, separated by patent protection of branded products, a discrete corporate focus on a single product type, and a wide disparity in prices. However, over the past decade, these two worlds have collided to create a new space, which I term "Braneric Competition."
Three competitive factors have catalyzed this fusion.

1) Competitive Duration: Historically, innovators promoted their products against other brands only until the patent expired, at which time multiple generic copies entered the market and often rapidly devoured the brand's market share. Over the past decade, the patent demarcation line has blurred as innovator and generics companies have entered earlier and more aggressively into each other's turf.

Generics companies are no longer waiting for patent expiration to attack originators' products.

2) Corporate Convergence: Previously, most innovator companies focused on commercializing original, branded products while generics companies exclusively sold generic copies. Increasingly, many large branded and generics companies are marketing both types of products.

3) Commercial Hybridization: As a result of corporate crossbreeding and intensifying competition, branded and generics companies have adopted many of each other's commercial approaches. For example, innovator companies are targeting and offering aggressive commercial terms to distributors and pharmacies, traditionally generic stakeholder strongholds. At the same time, generics companies in some countries are detailing physicians with sales forces that are larger than those of their innovative counterparts.(Ver más)