Breaking the Medicine Monopolies: Reflections of a Generic Drug Pioneer

(Paperback)

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Breaking the Medicine Monopolies is a lawyers personal narrative of the events that led to the widespread use of low-cost generic drugs and the current drug price crisis.

Breaking the Medicine Monopolies is a personal narrative about Alfred Engelbergs fifty years of legal work in the drug industry. He takes you inside the mysterious world of patents to provide a basic understanding of how drug makers have gamed the laws governing brand and generic competition, misused patents to prolong monopolies, and delayed generic competition on old drugs instead of focusing on discovering new ones. In this book, Engelberg provides readers with an understanding of how the growing use of low-cost generic drugs led to the highest prices in the world for new drugs, and how middlemen in the drug distribution chain have exploited a lack of price transparency in order to earn excessive profits. Breaking the Medicine Monopolies is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how ill-considered policy decisions and an inept patent system led to unaffordable prices for new drugs, and what can be done to correct the problem.

Author Bio

Alfred Engelberg is widely regarded as the legal father of the modern generic drug industry for his work on the Hatch-Waxman Act, which created the framework for the explosive growth in generic drug use. Engelberg was a pioneer in challenging improperly granted drug patents that block generic competition on important medicines. He is the author of numerous articles on regulation of brand and generic competition, high prices on new drugs, the role of patent monopolies on drug price competition and innovation, drug shortages, and more. Al has degrees in Chemical Engineering (Drexel, 1961) and law (New York University, 1965) and has worked as a patent examiner, a patent agent for Exxon, a Justice Department trial lawyer, and a partner in an intellectual property law practice. He founded NYUs Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy, is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and has been honored by NYU and others for his achievements in law and philanthropy.