Those juicy payoffs between brand-name and generic drugmakers are one step closer to coming to an end. Or so it would seem.

The Senate Judiciary Committee today passed the ‘Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act,’ which would “prohibit brand-name drug companies from exploiting a loophole in the Hatch-Waxman Act to pay generic drug companies to delay” generics from becoming available.

These under-the-table deals give brand-name drugmakers more time to sell higher-priced drugs and ring the register. And the payoffs give generics guaranteed cash. Investors seemed to like the arrangements, too. But not the Federal Trade Commission, which has tried to stop them.

The bi-partisan bill was, introduced by Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Leahy’s office issued this statement: the bill “puts a stop to the practice of collusive market allocation by drug companies and puts savings in consumer’s pockets.”

That’s if it isn’t watered down.
[tags]Generics, Hatch-Waxman, Senate Judiciary Committee[/tags]