Information Systems:Pharmaceutical Items - Brand or Generic
Definition
According to Wikipedia –
A brand name drug is a medication sold by a pharmaceutical company under a trademark-protected name. Brand name drugs can only be produced and sold by the company that holds the patent.
For as long as that patent lasts, a brand name company has a monopoly, and can set the price of the drug at a level which will recoup the costs of developing, testing, and marketing that particular drug.
After the patent on a drug expires, any pharmaceutical company can manufacture and sell it; only manufacturing cost will be incurred, which is a small fraction of the costs incurred by the original brand-name company.
The US F.D.A. defines a generic drug as "a drug product that is comparable to a brand/reference listed drug product in dosage form, strength, quality and performance characteristics, and intended use."
A generic drug must contain the same active ingredients as the original formulation. When generic products become available, the market competition often leads to substantially lower prices for both the original brand name product and the generic forms. The time it takes a generic drug to appear on the market varies. In most countries of the world, patents give 20 years of protection.
Prescriptions may be issued for drugs specifying only the chemical name, rather than a manufacturer's name; such a prescription can be filled with a drug of any brand meeting the specification.
Typically, once the generics become available, Pharmacare and other health plans will only cover up to the price of the generic; not the brand.
Identification in uniPHARM’s Item File
Generic items are in either class 003 – Generic Narcotics, or 021 – Generic Pharmaceuticals.
Branded items are in item account group I100 – Pharmaceuticals, not in the two classes above (003 and 021), and are in a particular markup class.
- 2016Jul08 - RX 8/9.695 -norwizzle (talk) 14:32, 8 July 2016 (PDT)
- 2015Apr01 – RX 8/9.193
- 2014Apr01 – RX 8/8.665
- 2010Oct15 – RX 8/10 8/10
We put the markup percentages within the class name to make it easier for us to identify them. Because of that, when rates change, we have to build new classes, and move all the items. This also means the method we use to identify branded items has to be changed.
Query SCF003 in library XX2480BP RPG program BLDCSTSL2 in library WEBPRDP