Last March there were six big medical cases pending before the Supreme Court.
One of them, the patentability of human genes, has already been heard. The “pay for delay” issue is about pharmaceutical companies that protect off-patent drugs by paying generic manufacturers not to produce them. [p 25, American Medical News, 3-25-13]
The hypertension drug Diovan went off patent last year. Last month my HMO had to pay $232.04 for 60 tablets of Diovan 80. The generic VALSARTAN was no longer available to the VA, and my HMO could not list this substitute as a “low cost option.” My point is that Big Pharma has already made a fortune on DIOVAN by charging over $1 per tablet for at least 12 years.