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Botox treatments to drop in price |
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Wednesday, 08 November 2006 |
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The price of Botox is set to drop dramatically for patients as a result of Allergan, the manufacturer, losing its patent for the drug last week in the High Court.
When a company owns a patent for a drug such as Botox, it can name its price for the product, since no other manufacturer can supply a competitive product using the same formula. However, when a company loses its patent on a drug, it no longer has a monopoly for making and supplying the product, and competitors are allowed to make and supply generic versions of that drug, as has happened before with drugs such as Valium.
The loss of the Botox patent means that competitors will now be able to manufacture wrinkle treatments using the exact same formula that Allergan uses to manufacturer Botox. However, they will not be able to call the product Botox, since this is a trademarked name and Allergan still owns the trademark. There is a danger to the owners of the Botox trademark, though, that the name has become genericised, like other trademark names such as Walkman, Hoover and Jacuzzi. If this happens, consumers could well use the term Botox to refer to a procedure for wrinkle treatment, allowing the doctor to choose whether to use Botox itself, or a cheaper, competitive product that will give the same result.
While patients will be able to get the exact same type of wrinkle treatment as before, this will be at a much lower cost, since the treatment may well use the generic version of the product, rather than the more expensive, brand name Botox.
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