Hopefully, they’ll send pizza with report.

There are some notable exceptions to procrastinating. As reported both in the Justice Department summary and by FDA, Warner-Lambert anticipated Neurontin’s going off patent when it was first launched. That was central in the off-label scam - they were saving those indications for what FDA called “son of Neurontin” and which we now know as Lyrica. I always thought there was a kind of demonic genius there.

From company’s perspective, of course, two bad they got bused for $430 million in civil and criminal penalties, but it was actually s small price to pay given Neurontin sales and share prize when Pfizer bought them out. In this case, crime clearly paid.

In general, companies have been able to delay a generic for two-three years _after_ patent expiration through provisions in Hatch-Waxman - a series of legal motions (only the _other_ lawyers are greedy!) which keep generics at bay. That has tightened up some, but not a heck of a lot.

I am going to guess that there is a little disinformation in the Cutting Edge report - in part to sell their own services.