Re: defensible?
17 years is defensible but endless patent [link|http://home.cwru.edu/activism/READ/WP032502.html|extensions] are not.
"To me, profit is not a dirty word, but you've also got to play by the rules," said South Dakota Gov. William J. Janklow, a Republican running for Congress. "What the drug companies are doing is obvious. They get to the very end of a patent, then change the color or throw in an inert ingredient and claim they need a new patent."
In the past two years, Bristol-Myers Squibb has stalled the market debut of generic versions of its diabetes medication Glucophage, the anti-anxiety drug BuSpar and cancer therapies Platinol and Taxol, say the researchers for the Business for Affordable Medicine coalition.
In the case of Prilosec, AstraZeneca argues it is strictly following the provisions of the law, first taking advantage of the pediatric exclusivity and then suing Andrx Corp. for what it believes are patent violations. "We have not taken advantage of any loopholes in Hatch-Waxman," company spokeswoman Rachel Bloom-Baglin said. The case is pending in a New York court.
Alex
"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session."\t-- Mark Twain