Abstract

Manufacturers like to have their products prescribed by the brand name because its use preserves their market indefinitely. When the patent for a product has run out the brand name is one of the manufacturer’s main protections. Propranolol (Inderal - ICI) has now been available for about 15 years, and the patent for it expired last October. Before it did, some generic propranolol appeared in Britain and this led to ICI’s campaign to persuade doctors of ‘The Importance of Prescribing Inderal’.