The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on March 25 for an important case involving consumer rights to generic drugs.
At stake is the lucrative “pay-for-delay” deals that pharmaceutical companies negotiate amongst themselves that keep less expensive generic drugs off the market and in my opinion are simple restraint-of-trade agreements.
The American Medical Association has now joined the Federal Trade Commission, AARP, the National Legislative Association and U.S. Public Interest Research Groups in a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to ban and make illegal anti-competitive agreements.
The case being heard is FTC v. Watson Pharmaceuticals. It arose when Watson Pharmaceutics, Inc. and Par Pharmaceuticals filed lawsuits against Solvay Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Abbott Laboratories, with respect to Solvay’s topical synthetic testosterone called AndroGel. In settling the lawsuit, Solvay not only agreed to pay Watson and Par $42 million to settle the case but to also keep generic versions of Androgel off-market until 2015.
In a press release, AMA President Dr. Jeremy Lazarus stated that “The AMA believes that pay-for-delay agreements undermine the balance between spurring innovation through the patent system and fostering competition through the development of generic drugs.”
Read the original article in ModernPhysician.com