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Message:: [QUOTE="Conder101, post: 3093325, member: 66"]True it isn't illegal, it's called having a patent.  To protect themselves a pharmaceutical company will take out a patent on a new drug immediately but it will then take many years and often hundreds of millions of dollars in expenses to get it through all the trials and studies required to get FDA approval.  When it does finally get approved (and after all that time and expense many DON'T get approved) there may only be a few years left on their patent in order to recoup their expenses before the patent expires and any other company can start making it and undercut their prices. If your doctor is prescribing an expensive brand name drug for you that doesn't have a generic version, ASK them why they are prescribing that drug. In some cases it is the only drug available.  In others it is because it is head and shoulders better than the next best drug.  But in some cases it may just be because the drug rep has been touting it to them recently.  If their reason isn't the first or second one I mentioned ASK then if their is another alternative, or what would they prescribe if that wasn't available.  Many new drugs marketed today are only slightly better, if that, than the previous drug that would have been prescribed.  Be proactive and you can often drugs that are just a good at much lower cost.[/QUOTE]