Drug companies pay the makers of generic drugs to delay their cheaper versions. These so-called pay-for-delay agreements, perfectly legal, generate huge profits both for the original manufacturers and for the generics—profits that come from consumers, from health insurers, and from government agencies paying higher prices than would otherwise be the case. The tactic costs Americans an estimated $3.5 billion a year. Europe doesn’t allow these sorts of payoffs. The major American drugmakers and generics have fought off any attempts to stop them.
