Generic drugs

06/17/2008 -- BOSTON – Senator John Kerry today urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explain the long delays in getting new generic prescription drugs out on the market.

People across Massachusetts and throughout the nation are facing rising costs for medications they depend on every day. For some, especially the elderly and low-income families, affordable generic drugs can be the difference between life and death.

The FDA is currently required to review a generic drug application within 180 days. However, the median approval time for a generic drug application now takes longer than 21 months - well beyond the 180 day requirement. These delays create a serious backlog of applications.    » read more »

March 18, 2008 -- Jefferson City, Mo. — Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon was joined by 17 other states and the District of Columbia today in filing a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies Abbott Laboratories and Fournier. The lawsuit alleges that the companies conspired to violate antitrust laws in delaying the availability of a cheaper, generic version of the cholesterol drug TriCor. TriCor accounted for over one billion dollars in sales for Abbott one year ago.    » read more »

BALTIMORE, MD (March 18, 2008) - Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler today filed suit against Abbott Laboratories and French drug company Fournier Industrie et Sante alleging that the firms violated state and federal antitrust laws by delaying the availability of cheaper, generic versions of TriCor, a cholesterol drug which last year accounted for over one billion dollars of Abbott’s sales.    » read more »

Abbott and French drug company face allegations they blocked generic versions of a cholesterol drug

March 18, 2008 -- TALLAHASSEE, FL – Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that Florida and 18 states have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories and French drug company Fournier Industrie et Sante and Laboratories Fournier, S.A., charging the companies with blocking a cheaper, generic version of prescription drug TriCor.    » read more »

March 18, 2008 -- LOS ANGELES -- California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today sued Abbott Laboratories and French drug company Fournier for devising “an elaborate scheme” to block less expensive generic versions of TriCor, a drug that controls cholesterol.    » read more »