GUEST COMMENTARY: Patents and Payoffs

(June 21, 2012) -- A federal appeals court recently dismissed a case that could have saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. Solvay Pharmaceutical, the maker of a synthetic form of testosterone called Androgel, had sued several generic drug companies for patent infringement but agreed to settle the case if those companies would accept up to $200 million dollars to stay off the Androgel market. Seeing this settlement as an agreement in restraint of trade, the Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust suit to bar the settlement and, in their brief, noted that such settlement agreements are costing drug consumers $3.5 billion dollars annually....

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