Generics

Blogs on Generics/Generic Medicines


Resolutions and Settlements

“Pay-For-Delay” deals between Big Pharma and generic drug makers has been going on for years.

The EU Commission’s latest raids happened this week and focused on AstraZeneca’s top-selling heartburn and ulcer drug Nexium. The U.K.’s second-biggest drug maker had a number of its sites in Europe raided, while Switzerland-based Nycomed said two of its sites in Germany received visits. One source said the raids were related. It joins other antitrust investigations that EU regulators are conducting involving generics deals made by GlaxoSmithKline, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, and other big-name drugmakers. Such raids focus on Pay-For-Delay settlements, where brand-name drug firms pay a potential generic competitor to abandon a patent challenge and delay entering the market. The practice is controversial and opaque as details rarely come to light unless exposed by regulators.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has repeatedly condemned Pay-For-Delay deals on grounds they keep lower-cost generics off the market, costing taxpayers and governments billions.

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