DefensorVeritatis

It's nonsense. All approved drugs must be safe and effective. The term he's looking for (and shouldn't have to, if he really does work for pharma) is bioequivalence. Per the FDA, all generics must be within a range of 80%-125% as bioequivalent as the originally approved "innovator" drug. This percent is after some statistical manipulation; the actual difference is about 3.5% This just means, for most drugs*, that there are small (typically clinically negligible) differences in how much of the active ingredient is absorbed after you take a pill. The chemical itself is 100% identical in terms of effect.

*For drugs with very small safe dosing ranges or where absorption matters a lot for effect (like levothyroxine, maybe warfarin), it is appropriate to pick a product and stick with it. However, that first product could be the generic and the patient would do just as well as if they had started on the brand - no 20% drop in effect or anything of the sort.

In fact, according to an article about spending in 2004, the industry spent 24.4% of its budget on promotion and just 13.4% for R+D. So theoretically, drug costs could be about 25% lower. As a pharmacy student, I know that a huge majority of professionals would prefer the end of direct-to-consumer advertising. There are other types, of course, but if the US ever joins the rest of the world in forbidding DTC ads, how do you believe pricing would be affected?

What did you do in school, and what sort of jobs did you have before this one? About how long have you been in the industry?