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With best-selling pharmaceuticals like Lipitor set to lose their patent in the next five years, are new generics are poised to replace more expensive brand names?
A Guardian article notes that the industry predicts that yes, generics are a large part of the future of pharma.
We’re doing a lot of pharmaceutical study here at Attentio, too. And we have a slightly different understanding of the future of generics in pharma.
Buzz about pharmaceuticals makes up one of the most consistent areas of online WOM (word of mouth) growth. Patients and health care consumers are increasingly aware of their choices in both pharma brands and generic products. They go online to discover pharma products and services that are old and new, local and foreign, and—more importantly—good and bad.
When a brand beats out the generics in WOM, it’s because the brand has a relationship with its consumers, the patients that have tried and come to trust the brand. Tried and true brands have proven their efficacy.
Trusted brands have beat fears about side effects or potential complications. People rely on certain brand name pharmaceuticals more than they trust their local hospitals or even their national public health systems. They trust these brands because these brands have worked, are working, and will, patients prophesize, continue to work.
Patients reveal their bias towards beloved brands in the buzz. In forums, blogs, and message boards dedicated to conditions, illnesses, and general health, certain brands trample their competitors in patient reviews, in online WOM, in buzz.
And in sales.
Buzz can make or breaks a brand’s reputation in pharmaceuticals. P2P communication (patient to patient) divides the good, the bad, and the ugly in available medications. Patients dissect the side effects and the relief that a pharmaceutical brings when added to a patient’s health regimen. This kind of word of mouth reputation will hopefully encourage pharmaceutical companies to build better medications, filling the global health market with quality products and services, rather than just quantity.
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