In 2012, analysts estimate that Americans spent $325 billion on prescription drugs and they predict that drug sales will rise by more than four percent in the year 2014. Generic drugs, which can cost as much as 90 percent lower than brand-name drugs, help rein in the costs. A brand-name drug that costs $300 per month might be sold as a generic for as little as $30 per month, but for several years, pay-for-delay deals have robbed consumers of cost-saving generic drugs. At the very core, these deals involve collusion between brand and generic competitors to keep generic competition off the...

Under the antitrust law, competitors cannot get together and form a cartel to agree on what prices to charge their consumers. Price fixing is not only a crime; it is also a tax on businesses, consumers, and innovation. Price fixing can come in various forms. It can involve agreements to set an actual price or agreements to limit output. It can involve agreements not to compete, such as rigging a competitive bidding process or dividing up a market between competitors. Cartels have no purpose other than to rob consumers. As Justice Scalia wrote in a 2004 Supreme Court decision, cartels are "the...