Suspicions have grown that pharmaceutical firms manipulate patent rules to maintain prices. "We do not believe that these sentiments in any way were reflected in our actions towards, and our interactions with, the BPC/BNF." The company said it believed it was acting within the law. We are reviewing this internally," it said in a statement. in the internal correspondence which are inappropriate. "We are unhappy with some of the language and the sentiment. "Reckitt cheated the National Health Service - it could have saved the NHS millions of pounds. He says: "They got them to switch all the patients - go in and change the computer systems overnight and maybe a letter would go out to all the patients saying your medication has been changed. Some sales tactics in 2005 were so unscrupulous that the industry's self-regulating watchdog made a ruling of unethical behaviour against Reckitt.Ī senior whistleblower from the drug company is due to speak on Newsnight tonight. It was basically the same product, based on a seaweed extract and sodium bicarbonate, but at double strength. Meanwhile, doctors were persuaded to switch all patients, many on repeat prescriptions, to Gaviscon Advance. It thought it could spin the process out until 2006, setting up as many "barriers to competitors" as possible in the eventual detailed specification. The company would buy time by "devising a plan to extend the development of a. The manager for what Reckitt calls its "power brand" explained it could use "the rationale of health and safety" to design a switched product to "muddy the waters". The BPC was persuaded to agree.īut a series of memos appear to lay bare Reckitt's true intentions. The company claimed on safety grounds that a detailed quality specification, known as a monograph, was needed first. Reckitt's next tactic in 2003 was to intervene with a regulatory body, the British Pharmacopeia Commission (BPC), part of the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It took three years, in which the BNF took a series of lawyers' opinions, to dismiss this claim. Reckitt's first move was to claim that Gaviscon was so unusual, as a compound of three separate chemicals, that the BNF had no right to issue a name. These are handed out by the British National Formulary (BNF). Before a doctor can prescribe a generic from his database, and a rival firm can manufacture it, it has to have an official title. The key to Reckitt's blocking tactics lay in the arcane question of a name. It and its variants are sold to the NHS for £2.70. The company's data shows it costs only 74p to produce a bottle of Gaviscon. The firm says doctors could still prescribe that if they wished. A more expensive version of Gaviscon liquid is still on pharmacists' counters. So doctors are still unable to find a cheap generic alternative they can prescribe. This was not covered by the laboriously negotiated generic specification for Gaviscon liquid. It allegedly used high-pressure sales tactics on doctors to transfer patients on to a slightly reformulated product, called Gaviscon Advance. The company suddenly withdrew its cheap Gaviscon supplies from the NHS in 2005. "I am sure there must be something we can dig out of the cupboard!" an executive wrote. These delays were designed, according to the files, to give Reckitt time to mount what was described as "a clever idea" - a switch to an almost identical product with a different name. The company says the memos were "inappropriate" and did not reflect Reckitt's eventual actions.Įxtracts, due to be broadcast tonight on BBC Newsnight, disclose Reckitt's plan to manipulate regulators on supposed safety grounds, threaten legal challenges and spin out procedures. It is a tactic known in the pharmaceuticals business as "evergreening". The leaked documents reveal in detail how the company blocked the generic version. Such a drug could have saved the NHS up to £40m. Although Gaviscon has been out of patent for almost 10 years, a cheap generic version wanted by the government has never been developed. It costs little to produce but its high price makes millions for its Hull-based manufacturer. Gaviscon is one of Britain's most common remedies, prescribed in large quantities to people with heartburn.
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