About this episode

The episode discusses a Supreme Court case that could affect the availability and pricing of generic drugs.

It’s a case you’ve (probably) never heard of: This week, the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in Hikma v. Amarin — a legal battle that could impact how much you ultimately pay for prescription drugs.  Here’s why the case matters: As soon as a generic version of a brand-name drug comes to market, its price typically drops by half. Within 10 years, by more than 75%. Meaning: the sooner we have access to generics, the less we pay at the pharmacy counter.  But one of the fastest legal pathways for generic companies to get their drugs to market may be about to get a lot narrower – depending on how the court rules later this year. Amarin, a brand-name drugmaker, has accused Hikma, a generic company, of encouraging doctors to infringe on their patent for a drug called Vascepa.   The case revolves around the legal concept of skinny labels : a carveout in drug patent law that allows generic companies to bring drugs to market when one of the brand-name drug’s patents has expired, but others haven’t. And it raises the (unexpected) question of whether it’s OK for a generic drug company to call their product the&nbsp…

Topics covered

• generic drugs
• patent law
• healthcare costs
• Supreme Court
• legal battles

Keywords

• generic drugs
• patent
• Supreme Court
• Vascepa
• Hikma
• Amarin
• healthcare costs

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Supreme Court, Hikma, Amarin

Products: Vascepa

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