The pharmaceutical giant Solvay Pharmaceuticals is unapologetic about its actions aimed at maintaining its monopoly on the phamaceutical testosterone gel Androgel (an anabolic-androgenic steroid). Solvay has “bought off” generic companies who planned to introduce inexpensive, generic versions of Androgel. The generic companies Watson Pharmaceuticals, Par Pharmaceutical, and Paddock Laboratories were prepared to offer a cheap generic testosterone gel as early as 2006 after the FDA granted Watson final approval for its generic product in January 2006. Solvay paid the generic companies a substantial amount of money to delay their entry into the generic Androgel marketplace until 2015.
The threat of generic competition would have decimated Solvay’s sales of Androgel; AndroGel has been their top-selling product with sales exceeding $300 million in 2006 and $400 million in 2007. Generic competition to Solvay’s flagship product Androgel could reduce the price of testosterone gel as much as 90% when compared to brand name Androgel. The payments to delay entry into the generic marketplace aka “pay-for-delay” settlements would be highly profitable for Solvay by extending brand name patent protection for several years. The windfall profits would come at the expense of consumers and federal taxpayers costing them billions of dollars Read more
