Senate c'tee votes to ban generic delay payments

The US Senate's Judiciary Committee has voted to approve legislation that would prevent the owners of branded-drug patents from making payments to generic drugmakers in order to delay the introduction of copy-cat drugs (Marketletters passim). The bill faces a vote on the Senate floor where some Republicans have promised to push for "significant changes."

The practice of exclusion payment settlements has been under threat from the Federal Trade Commission, although attempts by the government agency to block such deals fell through in 2005, when courts "took a lenient view," according to the Congressional Quarterly Today.

Drugmakers argue that the controversial payments are a mechanism for settling potentially expensive litigation over patent rights.