My goodness...Did you read the Reuters article located at:

http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourh...stice_dept_says.html


While I was aware that their tactic of immediately filing a patent infringement suit when rival pharmaceutical company petitioned the FDA for the right to produce a generic equivalent enabled them able to postpone generic production for about 2 ½ years, I never dreamed that they would stoop so low as to buy off fair competition.

Here is a partial quote from the article:
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WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) –The Justice Department argued on Monday that drug company payments to prevent generic competition were presumptively unlawful, a shift from the Bush administration which had not opposed the deals...
... A settlement involving a payment to the alleged drug patent infringer in exchange for its agreement to withdraw its challenge to the patent and delay bringing its generic drug to market is presumptively unlawful and requires the defendant to offer justifications in order to avoid antitrust liability," said the brief, which was signed by Christine Varney, the new head of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division....
The brief is a sign that the tide may be turning against the payments. Bills pending in the U.S. Congress would ban the deals. And the Federal Trade Commission has filed suit against several of the settlements, hoping to find one that the Supreme Court would find illegal.
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Unlike President Bush, President Obama supports a ban on this activity

Heck---I bet they they charged those payments off as a business expense and recoup those payments in the amount that sick people are charged for their medications.