Drug Makers Pay for Delay

Cost-conscious governments everywhere are bashing pricey patented drugs even as they boost cheap generics. In the past few weeks regulators in America and the European Union have announced separate crackdowns on anti-competitive practices, including “pay-for-delay” deals, whereby big drugmakers pay generics firms to delay the launch of competitors to drugs coming off patent. From Japan to Germany, governments are liberalising drug markets, sweeping away barriers to