More Than a Hangover

January’s post, I Know Not What I Pour, noted how excessive alcohol consumption may not be a conscious decision and can affect your health. There is further evidence that heavy alcohol consumption yields more than a hangover the next morning. An NHS Confederation report from this year states hospital and ambulance costs associated with treating heavy drinkers in the UK have doubled over the past five years.

According to Professor Ian Gilmore, President of the Royal College of Physicians, “The nation’s growing addiction to alcohol is putting an immense strain on health services, especially in hospitals, costing the NHS over ₤2.7 billion each year. This burden is no longer sustainable.”

According to Steve Barnett, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, “This report shows that not only are we drinking too much but that the cost to our health services is increasing.” He notes that of 18 people, who are addicted to alcohol, only 1 receives treatment. He believes more needs to be done to effectively identify, assess, and treat patients and calls for a “reappraisal” of social and cultural attitudes towards drinking.

The International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) would agree. In 2008, they sponsored a focus group centered study on alcohol consumption in Europe, Brazil, China, Nigeria, Russia, and South Africa. As reported in the September 23, 2008 issue of Science Daily, they found “cultural influences are a dominant factor in youth attitudes about drinking and drunkenness.”

Attitudes towards drinking varied by country and the lower rates of heavy drinking were found in Mediterranean countries versus heavy drinking rates in Northern Europe (including the UK.) For some countries, Spain, Italy and France for example, drinking moderately on a daily basis is a way of life.

It will take a little more than a Bloody Mary and a bottle of Advil to cure this hangover. Whether you drink or not, the increasing costs associated with caring for those who do will be passed on to everyone. The answer will lie in doing more than simply identifying and treating patients addicted to alcohol. To be effective, preventative measures able to change attitudes towards drinking need to be implemented. These preventative measures can only be effective if they are based on an awareness of the cultural factors contributing to the high levels of alcohol consumption in the first place.

Want to know more about the ICAP study? No sweat! They wrote a book about it: Swimming with Crocodiles: The Culture of Extreme Drinking.

Branded Generics?

Our last blog discussed the rise in popularity of generic prescription drugs domestically without mentioning their status overseas. Since most consumers outside the US market pay for drugs out of pocket and cannot afford expensive name brands, generics are very popular internationally. With the drop in brand name drug market share domestically, pharmaceutical companies are more than willing to fill this desire for low cost drugs.

Emerging markets are set to overtake US markets in overall sales. Pharmaceutical revenue in China in particular, with its current strides towards universal health coverage and improving its healthcare infrastructure, is predicted to double by 2013. Much of the growth in emerging markets (i.e., China, Brazil, Russia and India) is driven by low-cost generic drugs.

As a result, many pharmaceutical companies are now hawking branded generic drugs in overseas markets. While the term “branded generic” may seem at odds, it is actually becoming quite a lucrative market.

Americans, because they have been “brand washed” so extensively, tend to view generic drugs as lower in quality than brand name products, despite containing the same active ingredients. Marketed to less extensively, overseas populations are less biased against lower cost, generic formulations.

Branded generics make sense. There is no additional cost for a company to attach their company name to a generic formula, instilling consumer confidence in a less expensive formulation without adding millions in cost to marketing and promoting a specific brand name.

Companies approach this tactic differently. Some associate their main brand with the generic, while others purchase local overseas generic companies to sell their products under a different name.

“We are able to create different tiers of products at prices they haven’t previously seen with our stamp of approval,” Andrew P. Witty, the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline told the NY Times.

According to the same article, “It definitely represents a change in thinking,” said David Simmons, the president of Pfizer’s established products business unit, whose company has already added over 200 generic products to its portfolio.