If there is one industry I hate, it’s pharmaceuticals. I know, its an expensive business–developing drugs that may or may not actually ever see the light of pharmacist’s shelves. And the drugs themselves can sometimes do a lot of good. But I have trouble feeling sympathy for pharma management crying over declining earnings when the industry consistently ranks among the most profitable, thanks to their various shenanigans that keep raising the cost of health care for everyone.

This time its Glaxo in the news, for trying do an end-run around expiring patent protection by modifying the drugs slightly and launching new branded versions. According to today’s WSJ article “Glaxo Becomes a Master at Reinventing Drugs,” Glaxo says these modified drugs, aka product-line extensions, “represent real scientific advances and offer new benefits to patients.” CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier tells the paper “‘If you have a line extension that can significantly aim to improve the quality of treatment for patients, you should do it.’”

So what’s the big quality-of-life advancement for the new drug being discussed?

Allowing patients to take one pill a day instead of two. And not only that –the second pill being incorporated is an over-the-counter pain killer.

So for probably one-third of the cost of the new drug, you could take generic Imitrex when it becomes available with a generic painkiller from CVS. Bet they won’t be telling you that in all their marketing though.