This payment will reimburse insurers, drug wholesalers, and pharmacies who paid full price for the Provigil, produced by Cephalon, a company Teva bought in 2011, because Cephalon had paid generic drug makers to delay launching cheaper versions of the blockbuster drug. In the U.S., drugs are protected by patents for 20 years after they are invented, allowing their makers to have a monopoly on their sale and charge whatever price the market will bear during that time. Because when the patent expires many others drug companies enter competition the cost of a medicine can plunge 60% or more in short order. For Cephalon, keeping generics off the market was worth more than launching those generics. The FTC had already argued that making cash payments to keep a generic from launching is anticompetitive and illegal.
