A PYMNTS Company

US: Report finds eye-popping price of pay-for-delay schemes

By  |  July 12, 2013

Two nonprofit groups released a report last week that calculated the cost to consumers of pay-for-delay deals that delayed the release of cheaper, generic versions of brand name drugs, estimating that cost to be $98 billion. Public interest and consumer advocacy groups MassPirg and Community Catalys released the report last Thursday. The report says consumers paid an average of 10 times more for the brand name drugs. The release, entitled “Top Twenty pay-For-Delay Drugs: How Drug Industry Payoffs delay Generics, Inflate Prices and Hurt Consumers,” found generic releases were delayed by an average of five years as consumers played inflated prices. The US Supreme Court ruled last month that the schemes can violate antitrust law and are anticompetitive in a case initiated by the Federal Trade Commission against brand name drug maker Actavis. Click the link below to read the full report.

Full Content: Masspirg

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.