Can drug companies pay to delay generics?

[Jules A]

No one has yet to explain why the DMD's have increased so substantially in price - 300% in just a few years.

This is a great question and I'd also like to know why the price of gas, groceries, electric and water have increased much in the past few years also.

I truly don't know how people make ends meet on disability.

[its2much]

Just go to a CPI

calculator. I don't think anything (although my health insurance premiums increase quite a bit each year!) has increased 300%. My original health care policy went from less than $300 to over $2400 per month over a 12 year time period - I couldn't afford that policy any longer!

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, there's been an increase of 26% since 2003.
What was the cost of the DMD's back in 2003?

My original post was about drug companies paying other drug companies to not produce a generic form of their drugs after the patent ran up. I have no idea how much these drug companies are/were paid but it must be substantial or they wouldn't agree to the amount. Then again the legal fees from their lawsuits must be a big chunk of change as well.

[Myoak]

Neither the NMSS nor the NIH can patent a drug. The considerable research money spent by the government and the NMSS means Big Pharma can spend less developing new treatments which, if they see promise, will patent and pay other companies not to produce a generic when the patent expires.

Where do they get the money to pay companies NOT to make a generic? Obviously from disease sufferers and their insurance companies. Another reason why insurance premiums are high and rising.

The latest MS drug, Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate) is not expensive to purchase by the ton because it is an industrial chemical used to prevent mold and mildew. You can go to alibaba.com or Google dimethyl fumarate and find a dozen companies who sell it in barrels by the ton. Probably a real money maker for Biogen at $54,900 per year for each MS sufferer.

And the true beauty of it (to Biogen) is that it is a “maintenance medicine”. You have to keep taking until there is a cure. Someone mentioned that big pharma is in business to make a profit. True. A maintenance drug will be more profitable year after year than a cure so from a business point of view the research focus is on continuous profit maintenance drugs, not a cure.

I hope Tecfidera works well for everyone taking it, and it may, the Phase 3 trial results are impressive. I also hope Biogen will not raise prices on it every year, or sometimes twice during a year, as they have other MS drugs, like Tysabri.

[fishead]

Neither the NMSS nor the NIH can patent a drug. The considerable research money spent by the government and the NMSS means Big Pharma can spend less developing new treatments which, if they see promise, will patent and pay other companies not to produce a generic when the patent expires.

Where do they get the money to pay companies NOT to make a generic? Obviously from disease sufferers and their insurance companies. Another reason why insurance premiums are high and rising.

The latest MS drug, Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate) is not expensive to purchase by the ton because it is an industrial chemical used to prevent mold and mildew. You can go to alibaba.com or Google dimethyl fumarate and find a dozen companies who sell it in barrels by the ton. Probably a real money maker for Biogen at $54,900 per year for each MS sufferer.

And the true beauty of it (to Biogen) is that it is a “maintenance medicine”. You have to keep taking until there is a cure. Someone mentioned that big pharma is in business to make a profit. True. A maintenance drug will be more profitable year after year than a cure so from a business point of view the research focus is on continuous profit maintenance drugs, not a cure.

I hope Tecfidera works well for everyone taking it, and it may, the Phase 3 trial results are impressive. I also hope Biogen will not raise prices on it every year, or sometimes twice during a year, as they have other MS drugs, like Tysabri.

National Institute for Health actually does research.

[onlyairfare]

calculator. I don't think anything (although my health insurance premiums increase quite a bit each year!) has increased 300%. My original health care policy went from less than $300 to over $2400 per month over a 12 year time period - I couldn't afford that policy any longer!

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, there's been an increase of 26% since 2003.
What was the cost of the DMD's back in 2003?

My original post was about drug companies paying other drug companies to not produce a generic form of their drugs after the patent ran up. I have no idea how much these drug companies are/were paid but it must be substantial or they wouldn't agree to the amount. Then again the legal fees from their lawsuits must be a big chunk of change as well.

When I began Copaxone in 2002, the list price at my local Rite Aid pharmacy was $985. It cost about $3,200 per month when I quit taking it in 2008. My health plan changed from a flat dollar amount co-pay to 25% of the list price, or $800 per month.

I don't know what it costs now, but I am sure prices have not gone down. I wonder exactly who it is who can afford to pay $9,600 per year as a co-pay for one medication?

I guess we know where some of the money for "pay to delay" comes from. Pharmaceuticals are a costly high-risk, high-return business, and we as a democratic nation have made a decision that health care and pharmaceuticals will be administered as profit making businesses whose goal is to increase shareholder wealth. But to patients who can't pay the bill there is a cost exacted far beyond the dollar amount.

[alishape]

My two cents

If this is not illegal to pay someone not to make anything after the patent expires then I think it should be. Anything less undermines patent law itself. The system was made to reward those who innovate thus incouraging others to do so, not establish huge trusts that last forever. Imagine this scenario with a simple light bulb or something...we'd all be paying $150 per bulb instead of 2 or three dollars a pack.

If the supreme court doesn't see it that way though, the reprecussions could be huge! Some of the food we eat is patented these days.

[its2much]

I'm no expert

but their are anti-trust laws that may prohibit this.

[its2much]

The cost of copaxone today

is $4700 per month - my co-pay is 50% - that's over $28,000 per year in co-pay for copaxone. It was about $1600 per month back in 2007.

[its2much]

There are anti-trust

laws that prohibit monopolies and/or reduce competition (wonder what happened to AT&T?).
I'm certainly no legal expert but we'll just have to wait and see what's decided.