The U.S. Supreme Court should "take up a pivotal drug patent case brought by the Federal Trade Commission against Schering-Plough," a New York Times editorial states. FTC alleges that Schering "intended to delay competition" when it sued two generic drug manufacturers that each were developing blood pressure medications to compete against Schering's K-Dur 20, the editorial states. Schering has alleged that the generic drug companies' applications to market competing drugs, which were filed in 1995, infringed upon K-Dur 20's patent protection that is effective until 2006, according to the editorial. Schering ultimately "paid $60 million to one generic manufacturer in a settlement that delayed market entry until 2001 and $15 million to another generic manufacturer in a deal that delayed entry until 2004," the editorial states. "FTC concluded, quite reasonably, that these settlements were essentially payoffs to delay competition," but "a federal appeals court ruled that the payments did not violate antitrust law and that the facts did not bear out the FTC's contention that the payments were intended to delay competition," according to the editorial. The appeals court's ruling "was a disastrous blow to congressional laws that seek to speed the entry of generic competitors by brushing away spurious patent infringement claims by brand-name manufacturers," the editorial states, adding that "[s]ince the appeals court decision, there has been a sharp rise in the number of settlements in which brand-name companies pay off generic competitors to keep their cheaper drugs off the market." The editorial concludes, "Whether the [Supreme Court] acts or not, Congress should try to find a legislative route to block unscrupulous drug companies from buying off the competition" (New York Times, 6/7).

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