PhRMA: December 2009 | TPMMuckraker

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PhRMA: December 2009

Reid's Latest Thorny Issue On Health-Care Bill: Pay-For-Delay

Zachary Roth | December 8, 2009, 1:58PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI)

Here's an interesting window into the legislative sausage-making process - and a classic example, among countless others, of the way in which Senate leaders working on health-care reform are having to walk a tightrope between well-meaning policy goals and crude political imperatives.

As we reported last week, Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) has sponsored a measure designed to crack down on "pay-for-delay" deals by pharmaceutical companies, in which the maker of a brand-name drug pays a generic to hold off on marketing its cheaper drug, thereby preserving the brand-name's monopoly. This textbook anti-competitive tactic is hugely valuable to drug-makers, because it essentially allows them to buy more protection than their patent confers. But by keeping cheaper generic drugs off the market, it costs consumers billions -- and those costs fall disproportionately on the uninsured.

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Topics: Harry Reid, Health Care, Herb Kohl, Lobbyists, Pay-For-Delay, PhRMA

PhRMA

Drug-Makers Paying Off Competitors To Keep Cheap Generics Off Market

Zachary Roth | December 2, 2009, 3:07PM

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.