Suspending ‘Sweetheart’ Drug Deals Delivers Suspect Savings

Generic and brand-name pharma companies are vowing to block a ban on pay-for-delay agreements that appears in President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget request. The provision in the budget request says, “in order to facilitate consumers’ access to lower-cost generics,” the FTC would have the authority to prohibit agreements between brand-name and generic companies. Those agreements essentially settle patent lawsuits by paying the generic firm to delay entering the market. The administration is relying, perhaps too heavily, on projected savings from the pay-for-delay ban to reduce the federal budget deficit.
Drug Industry Daily