Is Congress getting enough from its grand pharma bargain?

Back in 1997, in an effort to incentivize pharma to develop drugs for children, Congress offered the industry an extra six months of market exclusivity in exchange for running pediatric trials. But has the program found the societal benefit it sought?

As STAT's Ed Silverman reports, a new study takes up that very question. The good news is that the program led to hundreds of trials that, in some cases, resulted in approvals for children who might otherwise have gone without treatment. But on the other end, the added six months of monopoly delayed the debut of generics, which cost the system about $176 million per drug at the median.

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