Word: generic-drug
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...many consumers, generic drugs have been a welcome remedy for sticker shock at the pharmacy counter. Designed to work as effectively as their brand- name counterparts, generics often sell for half the price. Since 1984, when Congress sought to make generics more readily available by speeding up the Government-approval process, competition has skyrocketed -- and so has the opportunity for abuse. Now a yearlong investigation by the Justice Department and the Food and Drug Administration is uncovering evidence that some makers of generic pharmaceuticals falsified laboratory test results and paid off FDA chemists to gain quick Government approval for their...
...where the typical product costs about $125 million to bring from the laboratory to the pharmacy shelf. Although drug patents can last up to 22 years, firms must test a product for several years after a patent filing to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration. That gives competitors, who have access to the filing, time to tinker with a patented compound and make it different enough to qualify as a new drug. Growing, too, are the ranks of generic-drug producers who do little or no research and sell copies of older drugs at deep discounts. Their share...