In the UK they are priced at £17.55 which converts to $42.37A
"Tablets, m/r, tamsulosin hydrochloride 400 micrograms. Net price 30-tab
pack = £17.55."
Derek.

You don't patent the name.  You patent the invention (which is not
necessarily something you can pick up or put on a store shelf.
Philips, for example, patented a way to force you to watch ads on
TV).  The invention is what's protected with a patent; the name
isn't.  I don't believe the distinction is nitpicking.

If, for example, I patent "the use of dihydrogen oxide to relieve
thirst", (someone else might patent "the use of dihydrogen oxide
to float boats in") I *DON'T* have to have a marketing name for it
to get the patent.  I might market it under the name "water".  If
you try marketing it under the name "flavor-free cola", you still
infringe my patent regardless of what you name it.

On the other hand, if I *trademark* the name "water", you can't market
anything under that name, but you can market dihydrogen oxide under
another name.

The drug manufacturer probably has a trademark on the name "Flomax"
(which I do not believe expires in any country) *and* a patent on
the formula of the drug (which is close to expiring if it hasn't
already).  They are playing games to make it difficult to switch
to a generic.

From what I understand, the drug manufacturer can now (at least in
the US) patent a slightly changed formulation of the same drug that
now has a time-release feature, and start the clock over again on
the patent on that formulation.  They want to get all of the
prescriptions re-written for a "different" drug, since other
manufacturers can produce a generic version of Flomax (and in many
countries, pharmacists are permitted to substitute a generic), which
is *not* equivalent to Flomaxtra (from the point of view of re-writing
prescriptions),

Sometimes changing the time-release characteristics of a drug are
significant and one version is not substitutable for the other.  In
any case, pharmacists can substitute a generic for a prescription
written for Flomax, but they cannot substitute a generic for a
prescription written for Flomaxtra because such a generic won't
exist for a long time.

The best thing for you to do is to get your doctor to re-write your
prescription for Flomaxtra if you can't get any Flomax, then have
the doctor change it *BACK* when cheaper generics of Flomax appear.
The manufacturer is hoping you won't go to that trouble.  That, I
believe, is the whole point.

If the trademark *and* the patent expired, then when generics appear,
they could be marketed as "Flomax", and if the original manufacturer
changed the name like they are doing, they'd be handing the entire
market over to the generic manufacturers.

                        Gordon L. Burditt