GOP, Gay Marriage and SCOTUS Hears Drug Monopoly Case

SCOTUS Pharmaceutical Case May Heavily Impact Drug Prices Can a brand drug maker pay a maker of a generic drug to keep their version off the market? The Federal Trade Commission has stated that is an illegal monopoly, but such a case reached the Supreme Court, where arguments were heard today. A twist in this case is that the payment agreement was the settlement in a case of copyright infringement. The original developer of the drug, Solvay Pharmaceuticals sued Actavis for producing a generic drug before the required “exclusionary period” in which Solvay had an exclusive right to produce AndroGel, a testosterone gel. The companies settled with Solvay agreeing to pay Actavis to stay out of the market for an extended period of time. The FTC claimed they were sharing in monopoly money and filed an antitrust suit but lower courts agreed with the industry. We talk to Scott Nelson, Attorney at the Public Citizen Litigation Group and Diane Bieri of Arnold & Porter LLP GOP Sees Divides Over Same-Sex Marriage as SCOTUS Takes Up DOMA and Prop 8 Amidst the Supreme Court taking up the issue, approval of same-sex has hit an all-time high according to recent polling. Meanwhile, the issue also seems to be dividing the Republican Party as they consider ways to recover from their defeat at the polls last November and a number of high-profile Republican officials changing their minds on the subject. My guest is at the forefront of the movement to change the GOP platform, in hopes of not-only garnering more acceptance for gay conservatives, but also rebuilding the party for electoral victories in the future. I caught Jimmy LaSalvia, Co-Founder & Executive Director of GOProud, Inc. at CPAC a couple weeks ago where he was making that very case.

Jimmy LaSalvia