guys wud love to hear your take on the below link. altho for us migraineurs symptom control is the only choice that we have, but i certainly do feel that as soon as a patent of an anti depressant expires, the same company claim to come up with a new and improved version like Wyeth which claims Pristiq works better than Effexor where as in fact Pristiq just apparently has some minor tweeks and DR Hain says the extra money is not worth it. I am assuming the FDA tests the drug and its safety and then authorizes after knowing that it works. Pristiq was released as sooon as the patent for Effexor expired. I have also read in recent articles how cancer drug companies are going to courts in India to disallow their patented drugs to b copied. India has very strong patent laws and due its huge population and an emerging market is a big consumer of pharmaceutical drugs and drug companies. However in India the patent laws do not allow for minor tweeks or adjustments in older drugs to be rebranded and then patented. patented drugs are sold at extremely high prices until the generic comes out and thats when the prices of the original drug drops. surprisingly the price of Effexor has remained stable even though the patent has expired. i can understand that pharmaceutical companies spend time and money on R and D but a lot of the funding comes from the government so why do they price their drugs so high when they are patented and then able to drop it as soon as the patent expires? Obviously if u work out the costs, during the patent period, these companies are racking up in the billions of $$$$. Plus the drugs should be made for a good cause i.e. to save peoples lives such as cancer drugs so the top executives of such companies should not be taking million dollar salaries. im sorry I may sound very critical here but this youtube video has just got me thinking a lot…more towards the negatives than the positives. No doubt, I am grateful that we live in an era where we can just pop a pill and continue with our lives even when we are sick…but still i really feel for those people who r sick but dont have the means to afford these drugs in third world nations.
I would love to hear everyone elses views on this especially yours Scott 
http://www.youtube.com/v/(http://www.youtube.com/embed/wIWuEAFlg1Y)