Getting Paid Not to Teach?

From John Curry, May 23, 2008
Subject: Getting Paid Not to Teach?

Imagine how enjoyable life would have been if you never had to teach a class but got paid handsomely for staying out of the classroom! Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, this is happening every year to some in the pharmaceutical industry! Every year patents expire on brand-name medications which means (so you think) that good news is here as now there will be a generic equivalent Rx manufactured so that you finally can save some bucks, right?

Well, not so fast - you see, in the pill manufacturing world, some pharmaceutical companies will pay other competitor pharmaceutical manufacturers to not manufacture a generic equivalent for the Rx that is coming off the patent! This means that the manufacturer of the formerly patented Rx continues to have the monopoly for that particular pill and so the price is not lowered due to competition....kinda' nice, don't you think? Nice, that is, for the pillmaker.... but not for your wallet!

The Federal Trade Commission is now interested in these deals between pharmaceutical manufacturers and considers them a violation of U.S. anti-trust laws. For more, click here to see what may happen next: