August 21st, 1979. Geraldo Rivera with ABC news investigates the difference in prices between generic and brand name drugs, speaking early in the segment with FDA commissioner Donald Kennedy.
“For many years the large drug manufacturers have been misleading and lying to American public, to the medical profession, and to the congress, about the quality of their drugs as against the generic drugs…”
The segment moves on to focus how many US government agencies, including the VA Veterans Affairs and U.S. Public Health Service opt for generic. We also look further afield to see radical price differences between the same drugs in Canada, and just across the river in Detroit Michigan.
In this clip Mr. Rivera speaks to consumers congressional researchers and various industry officials, looking at pharmaceutical advertising, state by state laws, even discovering that some generic and brand name drugs are manufactured in the same facility with the same ingredients — different prices.
Pharmaceutical advertising remains a major corporate budget today, and the price gap between generic and brand name drugs remains large.
This day, Geraldo’s television history.