Generic Drug Companies Delay Releases for a Price

According to the Federal Trade Commission, “pay for delay” costs American consumers $3.5 billion a year in higher prescription drug prices and the FTC advocates for this activity to be outlawed. As was discussed earlier this year titled “Researchers study the effect of authorized generics on innovation and market competition", when brand name drug companies put their hand in the generic drug pool it brings up the question of the possible impacts on innovation, market power and costs to consumers. On September 7th, The Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit denied a hearing to review patent settlements that pay drug company rivals to delay production of generic drugs. Dissenting opinions arose, and the government is concerned that “pay for delay” has implications for antitrust. The issue concerns itself with excess health care costs and it may be up to the Supreme Court or Congress to resolve the conflict.