"Those multiple and dozens of patents are getting in the way of future innovation and moving towards generics and biosimilars like our system is supposed to." - @btalente, @mssociety

As a consequence of the Hatch-Waxman Act, pay-for-delay deals between brand-name and generic drug companies have proliferated. A pay-for-delay deal is when a brand-name drug company compensates a generic competitor to stay off the market so that both companies can instead split the brand-name drug’s continued monopoly profits. These types of deals are illegal but brand-name drug companies have developed new ways to transfer value to generic competitors that are much harder for regulators and courts to detect. Pay-for-delay deals are one of many ways brand-name drug companies exploit loopholes in the Hatch-Waxman Act to maximize profits. @profrobnfeldman estimated that pay-for-delay deals alone may cost the U.S. population up to $37.1 billion per year. Listen below as @DavidP4AD, patient advocate and founder of @P4AD_ , explains how @bmsnews used a sophisticated form of a pay-for-delay deal to protect its monopoly on the cancer treatment Revlimid.