Doctors Say New HEW Policy Will Be Costly to Drug Firms

The drug industry will take huge profit losses in 1974 as a result of a recent decision by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, pharmacologists at the Medical School said yesterday.

HEW ruled Tuesday to require doctors to write chemical names for drugs rather than brand names on their prescriptions for welfare, Medicare and Medicaid patients.

The same medication can be sold under numerous brand names. Each company patents a specific chemical process, names its variation of the drug, and puts it on the market, often charging a high price, David Duhme '66, a research fellow at the Med School, said yesterday.

Loss of Billions

The drug industry will lose approximately $2 billion a year in profits, Dr. Douglas Waud, professor of Pharmacology, estimated yesterday.

Joseph Stetler, president of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, told the Boston Globe on Wednesday that the HEW decision was one of "monumental illogic."

He said that the claim that there is no difference between a generically-(chemically) named drug and the drug under a brand name is a "shocking" contention.

Duhme said, "Mr. Stetler has only one purpose, and that is to protect the drug companies."

He said that brand name drugs generally cost much more than generically named drugs. "The government is completely right in its decision to save money," he said.

No Differences

"There is no evidence that significant differences between a generic and a brand-name drug exist, except for a very few drugs," Waud said.

However, Dr. Peter Goldman, a pharmacologist at the Beth Israel Hospital, felt that the brand name on a drug guarantees a certain standard. The brand name drugs are "not better, but of a consistent, known quality," he explained.

Waud said that drug companies spend "$3000 per doctor per annum" in advertising, to teach the brand names to doctors.

Both Waud and Duhme faulted the physicians, who, they claimed, do not learn the official, chemical, "tongue-twisting" names. "They're too damn lazy," Waud said, "and they've bought the standard line."

"The Madison Avenue brand names are much easier to remember and to prescribe," Duhme said. He added that in routine conversation, doctors tend to use brand names. He compared this practice to the common use of "Kleenex" for "tissue."

Both Waud and Duhme stated that a blanket ruling that prescriptions must be generic is inadvisable.

Rational Policy

Waud said that Massachusetts has had a very "rational" policy, even before the federal government's latest move.

A Massachusetts doctor can legally prescribe a brand name, but must write the generic name with it.