Delayed access to generic medicine: a comment on the Hatch-Waxman Act and the "approval bottleneck"

Prescription drug costs can be astronomical. The advent of generic drugs, which sell at substantially lower prices than their brand-name counterparts, can save consumers billions of dollars per year. The Hatch-Waxman Act, which governs the introduction of generic pharmaceuticals into the marketplace, produces an undesired side effect-the "approval bottleneck." This Comment examines the "approval bottleneck"-a potential roadblock to the generic drug approval process, and comments on attempts to alleviate the problem.This Comment suggests that developments in statutes and case law have made leaps in attempting to alleviate the "approval bottleneck" problem.The Comment evaluates these developments, which include (1) the ability of a subsequent Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) filer to trigger the generic exclusivity period of the first ANDA filer; (2) the forfeiture provisions; (3) declaratory judgments and the relaxed declaratory judgment test; and (4) the rulings on covenants not to sue. Despite these attempts, however, the potential harm to consumers resulting from delayed access to generic medicines remains.