Big Pharma's "Pay-For-Delay" Scheme

So how low is Big Pharma willing to stoop in order to manipulate America's free enterprise system and increase their profits at the expense of sick people?  Pretty damned low.  Zachary Roth reports on TPM:  Republicans and their allies in the business community talk a good game about the virtues of free-market competition.  But, as we've seen in the debate over the public option, that stance often goes out the window when corporate profits are at stake.  And now we've got another example - one of the sleaziest and most blatantly self-serving yet.  Over the last few years, drug-makers have embraced a startlingly simple tactic for fending off competition from generic brands: paying them off.  In a nutshell, the company that holds the patent on a profitable drug strikes a deal with the maker of the cheaper generic brand: you hold off on marketing your generic for several years, and in return, we'll give you a share of our profits on the drug.  So common have these deals become lately that they've been given a name: pay-for-delay. The approach -- a textbook anti-competitive tactic -- is worth billions to drug-makers, because it essentially allows them to buy more protection than their patent confers.

I'll use Pfizer as an example.  My partner's Mom takes Detrol LA for a bladder condition.  It costs her thirty-five dollars for a month's supply - that's with insurance.  Without insurance, it would be a hundred and forty dollars.  If she doesn't have this drug her life is just miserable.   (And even $35 is high for an elderly person on a fixed income, when combined with all her other meds.)  She's been taking the drug for several years now, and keeps hoping for a generic version to be released.  It ain't gonna happen soon.  From MedTV:  The first patent for Detrol LA currently expires in September 2012.  This is the earliest possible date that a generic version of the drug could become available.  However, other circumstances could come up to extend the exclusivity period beyond 2012.  An almost identical situation exists with the drug Lyrica, which I take for nerve pain.  It's $40 with insurance, and $160 without insurance.  Returning to MedTV:  The patent for Lyrica currently expires in October 2013.  This is the earliest possible date that a generic version of Lyrica could become available.  However, there are other circumstances that could come up to extend the exclusivity period of Lyrica beyond 2013.

"Other circumstances."  I suppose that would be Pfizer's greed, coupled with "Pay for Delay."

Comments

[Trent]

This stuff really steams me. As long as the drug companies control Congress and the White House (as they surely do) we're not going to see any significant drop in health care costs. It's business as usual, and patients get stuck with paying the tab.

[Amanda]

Anything to line their pockets. Greedy bastards.

[Bee Girl]

Big pharma is as much to blame for America's screwed up healthcare system as the insurance companies, maybe more... and US legislators, Repugs AND Dems, are their lackeys. Nothing will ever change.