Pay-For-Delay To Stay FTC’s Top Priority

In a recent interview, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Bureau of Competition chairwoman Deborah Feinstein announced that targeting pay-for-delay arrangements by pharmaceutical companies would continue as a top priority for the FTC.  Pay-for-delay deals arise when pharmaceutical companies marketing branded drugs pay a pharmaceutical company to enter into a patent settlement with manufactures of generic drugs.  Under the patent settlements, the branded pharmaceutical company pays a large fee to the generic pharmaceutical manufacturer in order to delay entry of the generic drug into the market.  The FTC views such deals as anticompetitive and harmful to consumers because they stifle competition by preventing a lower-cost alternative from entering the market.