Prescription Trends—Brand-Name Drugs vs Generic (Reply)

The authors respond to commentary on their survey of physician generic drug skepticism by noting that brand-name manufacturers spend $30–60 billion annually on marketing that undermines faith in generics while generic manufacturers generally cannot afford counter-marketing. They call for policy reforms to prevent drug coupons and copay assistance programs from steering patients toward expensive brand-name drugs when lower-cost generic therapeutic alternatives are available, and support institutional restrictions on pharmaceutical detailing as a means of shifting prescribing toward generics.