Where's the Generic Version of Provigil?

I recently discovered again that free is never free enough for many of our religiously strident free enterprise entrepreneurs.  They conspire to be free, not to compete, but to sabotage what should be consumer benefits of a competitive market.

Considering the very high cost of prescription medicine, I presume most of us with our physician’s and providers’ approval will opt for the lower cost generic brands.  It’s bad enough when pharmaceutical companies conspire to inhibit our personal savings through our purchase of generics, but in addition inhibit our government’s ability to save tax dollars.

Case in point: Cephalon Pharmaceutical has developed Provigil, a product that helps with sleep apnea and narcolepsy (a condition of sudden attacks of deep sleep).  So in addition to it’s use by affected people in all walks of life, it is used by U.S. troops in Iraq to stay alert on long missions.

Cephalon has now paid competing manufacturers of generics $200 million for their agreement to keep their product off the market for seven years.  This payoff has benefited the generic manufacturers far more than competing on the market, and Cephalon has acknowledged that it made $4 billion “that no one expected.”  Who has to foot the bill? Consumers, employers, insurers, and the government who have to pay for the brand name, Provigil.

Fortunately The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit against Cephalon, acknowledging they are free to defend their patent but not free to prevent the development of generics that could accomplish the same result.  In the past the congressional Hatch-Waxman Act has enabled non-infringing generic drugs to enter the market, but the scenarios such as described above have been sabotaging this legislation.

The Federal Trade Commission also supports legislation to ban such collusive agreements.  With such a paper thin Democratic majority in congress, can you imagine such legislation passing Mr. Bush’s vetoe pen?  No Bush pen in 2009!!

Information for this letter was gleaned from an article by Jon Leibowitz, one of five members of The Federal Trade Commission.

Buz Cormany
Medina, OH