Lawmakers Consider How to Limit Product Hopping

A House subcommittee heard how some branded drugmakers game the system by reformulating their products solely to block competitors.

Such product hopping can delay generic and biologic competition, and lead to increased drug prices, Jeffrey Francer, general counsel for the Association for Accessible Medicines, told the members of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection and commerce. 

Francer cited the opioid-addiction treatment Suboxone (buprenorphine) as a classic case of product hopping, claiming the drug’s manufacturer switched the drug from an oral tablet to an under-the-tongue film, even though there was no consumer benefit to doing so. He didn’t actually name the drug’s manufacturer, Reckitt, in his testimony.