The War for the Allopathic Medicament Market in Mexico

Who could have imagined the current situation of the allopathic medicament market in Mexico 4 years ago?

Approximately four years ago, a tripartite advertising war in the massive communication media took place between laboratories manufacturing allopathic medicaments, that is, innovative medicaments or patent-protected medicaments, laboratories manufacturing interchangeable generic medicaments (GI's by their initials in Spanish language), and laboratories manufacturing generic or "similar" (look-alikes) medicaments. In this war, each part enhanced the advantages of their products, emphasizing particularly in their respective costs.

The struggle still persists, and this conflict is being taken to other spheres besides the commercial ambit. For instance, the company "Farmacia de Similares" (Similars Pharmacy), which sells medicaments from the "similar" category, has publicly denounced that the Federal Consumers Representative (PROFECO), the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (MIIP) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) are acting against it, because on the one hand, the first two organizations have emitted resolutions ordering "Farmacia de Similares" to remove its advertising campaign slogan "the same but cheaper", because it is considered as unlawful competition. On the other hand, "Farmacia de Similares" argues that the MOH is pretending to eliminate it from the market by modifying the standards for governmental acquisitions, because now, the MOH will demand only patent-protected medicaments or interchangeable generic medicaments (GI's), which satisfactorily approve with the standards of bioequivalency tests.

As it can be seen, this dispute between laboratories is turning more intense as interesting each time, if we take into account that the allopathic medicament market in Mxico is within the first ten in the world, and that it is number one in Latin America. Hence, we do not have to say that too many economical interests are at stake.

Many may wonder why does this conflict exists; well, the answer goes as follows:

Before implementing the interchangeable generic medicament program (commercially designated as GI's) in 1998, there were only innovative or patent-protected medicaments and generic or similar medicaments in the market.

In 1991, the World Health Organization (WHO) had recommended the Mexican Government implementing a program for interchangeable generic medicaments. It was until 1998, that the MOH reformed the General Health Law...