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Doctors Prefer Brand Names Over Generic Viagra
If you're a male adult with erectile dysfunction, you've no doubt visited the pharmacy with your doctor's prescription in hand to get your share of medication. Chances also are that your prescription contained the name Viagra, with no mention of the word "Sildenalfil". The latter is the generic name of the medication that is commonly used to treat Viagra. But as data shows, doctors are more likely to refer to the medication by its brand name Viagra, instead of its generic name, Sildenafil. This is causing a bit of a commotion among health professionals and the media, who claim that this is an unethical practice that should be curbed.
The nexus between doctors and pharmaceutical companies is an old one, and we've known for long that drug companies thrive on being in the good books of doctors who can then prescribe their super brand medications, and boost their profit lines. But as ethics experts say, these companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop brand name recognition around their product, so doctors will prescribe it to patients. The result is that when you receive a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication, you will find the doctors in most cases have scribbled the word Viagra, and not its generic name, or in fact any of the generic Viagra brands available, even though they are just as potent as Pfizer's blue pill.
Many experts say that this is a trend in the media too. When you read an article in the media about Viagra, you don't hear of generic Viagra or Sildenalfil. You hear the word Viagra mentioned as many times as possible. According to Michael Henchman, of Harvard Medical School, at least two thirds of articles that are published, describe drugs by their brand names, and not by their generic names.
The problem is just as bad in the UK, where searches turn up more results from the term "Viagra" than the term "Sildenafil". According to Hochmans, such media reporting is unfair to consumers who are given wrong information by associating the word Viagra with generic name of Viagra, Sildenafil. It is also unfair to health funders, because it creates the impression in the minds of the public that Viagra is the superior quality product, while generic Viagra that is available under other names, is inferior. When the patents on these medications run out after a few years, the problem becomes even more acute, because the generic versions of the medication become available for a fraction of the price.
People in the media argue that the public is familiar only with the brand Viagra, and if the reporters were to start using the word "Sildenafil", the readers would be lost right at the beginning of the article. Generic Viagra doesn't have much visibility, or name recognition among readers, and therefore, these brand names are used more widely.
Even so, it represents an unfair practice among the media and the pharmaceutical companies, and end up giving the brand companies an unfair advantage over other companies. In the end, patients don’t really have the opportunity to shop around for cheaper medications, because they aren't aware that there are other choices like generic Viagra out there for a fraction of the cost of Viagra.
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MEN'S HEALTH
