
A federal appeals court denied a bid by a pharmaceutical industry trade group to block a closely watched California law that bans so-called pay-to-delay deals between drug makers, a contentious issue that has factored into the larger debate over the cost of prescription medicines.
The ruling, which was issued Friday, came in response to a lawsuit by the Association for Accessible Medicines after California passed its law last fall. The state became the first in the nation to outlaw pay-to-delay deals, and California officials explained the step was necessary in order to prevent drug companies from thwarting competition and maintaining higher prices.
As usual with Big Pharma sunshine is the best disinfectant and “pay-to-delay” is just one more egregious example of why that’s true.
Thanks, Ed, good article and I’d love to see a challenge to the pharma trade associations to show us their math, no erasers allowed.
Pardon the cynicism (not really) and always remember Rule #1: when two or more pharma companies do a deal rest assured the patient is the loser. There’s rare exceptions that happen about as often as Trump tells the truth.