Pay-to-delay deals help no one and nothing outside of the bottom lines of a few big pharmaceutical companies.  Here’s hoping they go away soon…

FOR TOO LONG, pay-for-delay settlements have been an accepted part of the health-care landscape. In these deals, a brand-name drug manufacturer pays a generic competitor to delay its entry into the

Remember, one of the common arguments of the tort reform crowd is that trial lawyers keep drugs from coming to market.  If pharmaceuticals were really concerned about people having access to drugs, would they be doing this?

WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission expressed concern about the practices of brand-name drug makers after generic drug companies complained

In theory, no.  Generic drugs are supposed to be just as safe and effective as brand-name drugs.  However, there is some evidence that they may not be:

“The average citizen would want to know that someone is checking that manufacturers are making the drugs they got approval to make,” says William K. Hubbard of Chapel