coming on the heels of the SC striking down AZ's draconian law requiring proof of citizenship in order to vote. Are the stars & planets in some peculiar alignment?

Seeing as how too many generics lack the active ingredient...

I'm not sure that l'd particularly favor either name brands or generics.

Of course, there are shenanigans sometimes. But the name-brand makers also engage in shenanigans sometimes, so it seems to me to be a wash with regard to which we can trust more.

The excipients in generics (non active ingredients) can be different however.

However a big generics maker has plead guilty recently to rigging the tests for efficacy.

It makes me shudder.

that name branded drug manufacturers have rigged their products to the point of many many deaths. So if you want to shudder, think in terms of that. The diabetes drugs, the anti inflammatory drugs, etc etc that know carry the black box warnings that are just ridiculous. If they are that dangerous, take them off the market. There are no new drugs that do anything any better than the good old standbys.
They use the US population as guinea pigs and then after 10 years and thousands of deaths the product gets either taken off the market or black labeled and they are fined a few hundred million dollars. That after they have made billions.

I will go look now and get back to you.

This is a partial list of citations. It is not fun reading and not easy to go through all the research. I was unable to substantiate the 10 year figure I talked about, sorry. But I will keep looking. Some of the articles will lead to that conclusion, though. The main point is that branded drugs are not safe all the time, and it is more profitable to pay a fine or a law suit and keep selling the drug. I will keep my eyes looking for more information and send you as I find it. Hope this helps.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/healthcare/96577349.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rofecoxib

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/11/26/death-by-medicine-part-one.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxed_warning

http://drugs.about.com/od/medicationabcs/a/BlackBoxWarning.htm

I hope it is what I said it was, and what you are looking for.

There's obviously market manipulation. And fraud at times. The Baystate Medical Center case is a good example. That's a clear case.

Yet I don't buy any broad FDA collusion in market manipulation or fraud.

The SCOTUS ruling clearly points to anti-trust violations. It was apparently made under FTC standards, appropriately. They are the regulatory agency in this instance.

(aside) Didn't read the mercola piece. I've little trust in their veracity or accuracy.

to being of an opposite opinion to you. I don't trust big pharma or the FDA as far as I can throw them. I believe there is big fraud there. They do not look out for our interests or rights. The FDA is populated by corporate pharma people who find their careers open when they leave the FDA, if in fact they need to. Physicians are paid to prescribe medications of which they know nothing. Most physicians who leave school feel they have done their share education. Problem is, that is what they are suppose to be - educators, not dictators.

Mercola is my go to guy. I read him a lot. I don't like his politics, but that does not mean I do not like his medicine and medical philosophy. I don't believe that "modern" American medicine is the do all be all of health care. What we do is sick care. And sick care is needed, but with the addition of a medical philosophy of the alternative kind which is more about preventative medicine. That is more cost effective monetarily and physically.

Alito recused himself, but otherwise the vote went the way we'd expect for a positive ruling: the far-right Kennedy split with his fringe-right brethren.

The amounts of money they'll rake in in the time the generics are 'on hold' will more than offset anything they're required to pay in a resulting lawsuit.

The big pharma companies have held on to their patents and prevented generics by just adding a little ingredient to the name brand, give it another name and whalla - new product, that does just the same thing. The drug business is a big ripoff in this country. They charge multiple times the price here than in other countries. Crying research and development. They spend more on advertising and paying off the doctors than any real research. It is a disgraceful enterprise. And it is disgraceful that the generic companies accept the money rather than do what they were organized to do. Greed on both sides.

the patent bomb. He said, basically we could revisit the patent laws which would save x amount of dollars. I know the rwingers heads spun. It was quietly dropped and no other resistance came from the gop that week. lol

I got hit by this anti-competitive practice while waiting for a med with an expired patent to go generic. These cases will probably be "settled" in some class action process, but it cost me some money, peace of mind, and I ended up taking a medicine that I could afford but was less effective, with the side effect of killing my libido. Individuals who opt out of whatever class action process takes place will, no doubt, be crushed by big pharm lawyers.

The medicine I take is (at last) available as a generic but I think the process that delayed the availability of the generic was criminal.

The big pharmaceutical companies pay more for advertising, bogus studies, and legal maneuvering than they do on actual medical research. I'd nationalize the worst of them, implement a "corporate death penalty" and turn their research departments over to public universities with federal funding. New innovative drugs would be given to world unencumbered by patents. Innovative drug developers, actual scientists and doctors (not CEOs, IP lawyers, and marketers...), would be awarded recognition and prizes for their work for medicines that actually save lives rather than medicines that are most profitable.

http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/ucm079031.htm